Glienicke Palace in Berlin is a little piece of Italy  . It is part of the ensemble of parks, gardens and palaces created by the landscape architect Peter Joseph Lenné.In 1825, at the behest of Prince Carl von Preussen, the neo-classicist architect Karl Friedrich Schinkel converted the original palace into a summer residence in the Italian country-house style. Elements of Classical and Byzantine art and architecture are integrated into the palace and its gardens, underlining its Mediterranean character. A large fountain in front of the main façade is decorated with gilt lions, it was modelled after the Villa Medici fountain in Rome. The gardens also feature a host of smaller buildings, such as the Hothouse and Orangery, the Hunter's Lodge, the romantic Klosterhof (cloister yard), the Matrosenhaus (mariner's lodge), the Gardener's House and the Machine House. A walk through this park is like a journey through the landscapes of Europe; one moves from the Alpine forests and gorges of the northern end to the "Mediterranean" landscape of the south. Here, the terraces of Schinkel's neo-classical Kasino offer a wonderful view of the Havel waterscape – "the Bay of Potsdam".
Directly behind the palace, we find a testimony to more recent European history: the Glienicker Brücke bridge, which crosses the Havel to connect Potsdam with Berlin. The bridge has been rebuilt several times in its long history; the original wooden construction was replaced by a bascule bridge, before Schinkel replaced this in turn with a neo-classical brick construction. In 1905, a modern construction, also divided in the middle, took its place, with further decoration being added in 1909. During the Cold War, the Glienicker Brücke bridge between West Berlin and the GDR became internationally famous as the place where spies were exchanged.
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