The San Soucci Palace Garden

After the tour, I went out back to view the palace garden. My guide had as much to say about the garden as the palace itself, and so I was looking forward to seeing it. Having now seen it, let me say: ol’ Fredrick really outdid himself. A long walkway from the palace’s rear exit led downward through more than half a dozen shelves of ground (it was once one big slope, but Fredrick had had the hill carved into the appearance of massive stairs that I refer to as ‘shelves’, as each stair is taller than I). This all led to a massive fountain with several statues of Greek gods encircling it. Between the various gods were half-moon shaped marble benches.

From the top of this walkway, one can easily see the spire of some great church in the distance. Past this pool is a bridge which crosses a brook that flows parallel to the palace. I spent a long time up at the time, making sure to capture the wide variety of photos this picturesque view offered, before proceeding down to the fountain itself. As grand as the fountain was up close, as it turned out, the fountain itself was far from the most interesting thing I noticed when I got close.

It was as I was circling the fountain clockwise that realized that there was more to this place than I had realized. A path led off to the garden’s left, walled by thick but trimmed hedges. I could see from where I stood that the path led to another fountain, very much like the one I was standing at, only slightly smaller. Peaking out from above that fountain was the top of an obelisk. It looked to be a good deal further on the path then the fountain. Momentarily I was stunned – clearly this garden was much bigger than I had realized.

But the garden was very symmetrical in design, and so when I turned around I was unsurprised to see that the path stretched not only to the left, but also to the right of the palace. And in the other direction as well, there was a fountain slightly smaller in size than the one I was standing at. Behind that fountain, a portion of a huge green dome was visible in the distance, likely belonging to a massive structure. I resolved to find out.

But as first thing is first, I decided to see if I could get all three fountains and the obelisk in a single photograph.