Portal:Berlin/Article of the month/July

Schloss Schönhausen during renovations in 2008.

Schloss Schönhausen is a Baroque palace in the district of Niederschönhausen in the Berlin quarter of Pankow. The schloss belongs to the Prussian Palaces and Gardens Foundation Berlin-Brandenburg and is surrounded by a park through which flows the River Panke. In 1662 Countess Sophie Theodore of Dohna-Schlobitten purchased the estates of Niederschönhausen and Pankow, at that time far beyond the gates of Berlin. In 1664, she had a manor feudal estate built in the Dutch style on the knight's estate of Niederschönhausen. Subsequent owners included, in 1680, the general and chancellor, Joachim Ernst von Grumbkow, who had the manor entirely rebuilt. The schloss now had a triangular plan with two upper storeys, when it was sold by Grumbkow's widow, together with its estates, in 1691 to Prince-Elector Frederick III of Brandenburg for 16,000 talers. → more...