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Without worries
Frederick the Great built it as a place without worries
Sanssouci was built by Frederick the Great as his summer palace, designed and built by Georg Wenzeslaus von Knobelsdorff between 1745 and 1747. Frederick needed a private residence where he could escape the pomp of the royal court. The French name means without worries.
A small villa
It has only ten principal rooms
Sanssouci is little more than a large, single-storey villa. It contains just ten principal rooms and was built on the brow of a terraced hill. Frederick called it "my little vineyard house", and the palace was used only in the summer months, from the end of April to the beginning of October.
Fired
The architect was dismissed in 1746 over where to put it
Because of a disagreement about the site of the palace in the park, Knobelsdorff was fired in 1746. Jan Bouman, a Dutch architect, finished the project.
Showing off
Twenty years later he built a far bigger palace to show off
Twenty years after Sanssouci, Frederick built the New Palace in the western part of the park, a far larger palace in the Baroque style. It was intended to show that Prussia's capabilities were undiminished despite its near defeat in the Seven Years' War. Frederick himself called it his fanfaronnade, his showing off.
The tomb
After reunification Frederick's body was returned to the terrace
After German reunification in 1990, Frederick's body was returned to the palace and buried in a new tomb overlooking the gardens he had created. Sanssouci and its gardens became a World Heritage Site in 1990.
Day 4, morning
Next is Sanssouci Park.
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The words are a retelling of the Wikipedia article Sanssouci, and are shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. They are checked against those articles, and a fact that is not in them is left out.