POTSDAM, a city in the Prussian province of Brandenburg, and, next to Berlin, the handsomest and best built town in Prussia, is situated on an island at the point of junc tion between the small stream of the Nuthe and the river. Havel, 16 in. s.w. of Berlin. Pop. '71, 43,784 (with 5,475 soldiers); in 1875, 45,003. Potsdam is the usual summer residence of the royal family of Prussia, and scat of the imperial court. The city i3 divided into Old Town and New Town, and has four suburbs. The streets are broad and regularly built, and there are fine squares, some of which are planted with trees, forming pleasant public walks. Of the many large and handsome buildings, one of the most worthy of notice is the old royal palace, an oblong parallelogram, three stories high, with a magnificent colonnade facing the fine Havel bridge. Potsdam has several benev olent and educational institutions connected with the state, as, for instance, two asy lums for the orphan children of military men, and one for those of persons belonging to the civil service; schools for cadets, subalterns, and privates; the luisemlenkmal, au institution for providing for indigent girls of irreproachable character; a gymnasium, a high-school, and various other training and special schools. Among the churches, the most noteworthy are the garnisonskirche, with a tower 400 ft. high, a fine chime of bells, and a noble marble pulpit, below which rest the remains of Friedrich Wilhelm I. and Friedrich IL, and St. Nicolai's, lately rebuilt after the model of the pantheon at Paris. The Brandenburger-Thor, which is the handsomest of the various gates, is a tri umphal areh copied from Trajan's arch at Rome; and this, like the other gates, opens upon a fine allge of trees. Potsdam is surrounded with pleasant public walks and gar
dens, wooded heights, and vine-covered banks; while in the immediate neighborhood arc numerous royal country palaces, as Sans-Souci, the favorite residence of Frederick the great, surrottuded by a line park, pleasure-grounds, and choicely-stocked gardens, near which stands the Ruinenberg, with artificially constructed ruins, designed to Con ceal the water-works which supply the fountains of the palace. Near the park is the new palace, begun in 1763, 680 ft. in length, containing nearly 100 rooms, many of which are filled with costly works of art. 'Near Sans-Bonci is Charlottenhof, built by the late king, a pleasant villa, with lovely gardens, in which stands a Pompeian house. The Russian colony of Alexandrowska, with its Russian houses and Greek church, lies near the Pfingstherg, which is surmounted with an unfinished palace, from whence a fine view is obtained of the numerous royal parks and gardens, and the surrounding country. In the new garden stands the marble palace, with arcades adorned with fres coes of the Potsdam is the seat of the provincial government, and of several of the state manu factories. Of these, the most important is the manufactory of arms, at which the rifles for the army are made. There mite also numerous private manufactories of machinery, chocolate, tobacco, cotton goods, silk: leather, wax-cloth. beer, etc.
Potsdam owafi its creation as a town to the great elector Friedrich Wilhelm, who built a royal palace here between 1660 and 1673. and laid out several good streets. Prior to that period it was an insignificant fishing village, built on the site of an ancient Wendish settlement.