Portal to the Palace Park

After Johann Arnold Nering had been commissioned by Elector Frederick III to undertake extension and conversion work on the palace, Nering also devoted himself to the expansion and redesign of the pleasure garden. In 1690 the latter was given a prestigious portal that survives to this day.
The park portal is flanked on both sides by two sturdy pillars of the same design on the inside and outside, each with a pair of domed columns under so-called three-grooved friezes (triglyphs). Between the columns, the motif of the northern wings of the palace is echoed on the courtyard side with niches and consoles underneath on which busts would have originally been placed. On the eaves there are female sandstone figures: these are allegories of summer – on the right, with flowers – and autumn – on the left, with a basket of fruits. These were replaced with copies after bombing on March 6, 1944.

The two wrought-iron gate wings, with their applied palm and laurel branches, echo the carved decorations on the leaves of the main entrance door to the palace. Above the fighter, the mirror monogram “F 3 E B” appears (“Frederick III Elector of Brandenburg”), framed with the motto of the British chivalric Order of the Garter – “Honi soit, qui mal y pense” (“Shame on anyone who thinks evil of it”) – and crowned with the electoral hat.