A palace in Berlin, built (16951796) by Elector Frederick for his wife, Sophie Charlotte. The building houses a museum.
Schloss Charlottenburg is the largest existing palace in Berlin.
History
Initially, under the name of Lietzenburg, the palace was constructed in the Italian Baroque style by the architect Arnold Nering commissioned by Sophie Charlotte, the wife of Friedrich III, Elector of Brandenburg. After Friedrich's coronation in 1701 as King Friedrich I of Prussia and Charlotte his Queen, the palace, which was initially conceived as a summer retreat from Berlin (Sommerhaus) was expanded by the architect Eosander von Göthe into a magnificent building.
Inside the Charlottenburg Palace used to be what was described as "the eighth wonder of the world" — the Bernsteinzimmer, a room with its walls surfaced in decorative amber.
After the death of Friedrich I in 1713 Charlottenburg entered a new existence under its next owner, King Friedrich Wilhelm I. Yet right after his death in 1740, the newly crowned King Friedrich II allowed Charlottenburg to be expanded by Georg Wenzeslaus von Knobelsdorff, whereupon east of the palace rose the New Wing.
The palace was in its best finished form under Friedrich Wilhelm II with the completion of the western palace theatre and the small orangery of Carl Gotthard Langhans.
Palace grounds
The grounds were laid out at the end of the 17th century by Simeon Godeau in the French style of André Le Notre, and at the end of the 18th century part of the parterre was transformed partly into an English landscape garden.
The palace park as a large, well-laid out park still serves as a recreational town park for the nearby sparsely populated Charlottenburger Altstadt (old town of Charlottenburg).
From 2004 until early 2006, Charlottenburg Palace was the seat of the President of Germany, whilst Schloss Bellevue was being renovated.
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