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The Antique Temple is a small round temple in the west part of Sanssouci Park in Potsdam. Frederick the Great had the building constructed to house his collection of antique artifacts, coins and gems. more...

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Carl von Gontard created the building in 1768/69 near the New Palace north of the Central Alley, as a complement to the Temple of Friendship situated south of the Alley. Since 1921 the Antique Temple has been used as a mausoleum for members of the House of Hohenzollern and is not open to the public.

Usage under Frederick the Great

The Antique Temple was, like the Sanssouci Picture Gallery, envisioned from the beginning as a museum and at the time of Frederick the Great could be visited after notifying the castellan at the New Palace. Next to dozens of antique ornaments, such as marble urns, bronze figurines, tools, weights and ceramics, could be found the so-called 'Family of Lycomedes', ten life-sized marble statues on marble plinths. They came to Frederick the Great from the art collection of the French Cardinal Melchior de Polignac. Fifty busts of marble, basalt and bronze sat on brackets, 31 of which also came from Polignac's collection; the rest were from Friedrich's favourite sister, Princess Wilhelmine, Margravine of Brandenburg-Bayreuth. In a square annex that could only be reached through opening a door from the round central hall, the Coin Chamber was created. Four cedar wood cupboards were filled with over 9,200 gold, silver and bronze coins, around 4,370 gems and cameos, 48 marble, terra cotta and bronze reliefs, and books from Frederick the Great's archaeological library.

New usage under Frederick William III

Frederick William III, who ruled Prussia from 1797, announced in a Cabinet Order on 1st September 1798:

\"...for the progress of the study of the antiquities and art... the collection of medals and antiques in the Antique Temple in Potsdam shall be united with the similar collections in Berlin and entrusted with the Academy of Sciences...\"

Consequently the coin and gem collection were placed in the Antique Chamber of the Berlin City Palace. In 1828 the sculptures and busts followed, which, after being restored in the workshop of the sculptor Christian Daniel Rauch, found their place in the Altes Museum in Lustgarten. The Museum was built to the design of the architect Karl Friedrich Schinkel and opened in 1830.

In June 1828 Friedrich William III had the second version of a coffin designed by Christian Daniel Rauch set into the now empty Antique Temple. The coffin's famous original lay in the mausoleum in the park of Charlottenburg Palace in Berlin, which was completed for Queen Louise, who died 19th July, 1810. Until 1904 the copy remained in the Antique Temple, and arrived in Spring 1877 in the Hohenzollern Museum, situated in Monbijou Palace, which was open to the public. The Monbijou Palace was destroyed during the Second World War.

Read more at Wikipedia.org