Altlandsberg Manor

Until a few years ago, Otto Freyherr von Schwerin's monument stood in front of the entrance portal of the castle church on the church square. At the current location with a view of the castle park, however, it comes into its own much better.

The Altlandsberg castle estate was the country seat of Otto von Schwerin, first minister to the Great Elector and tutor to his sons. Frederick I, Elector of Brandenburg and King of Prussia, spent his youth here. In 1708 he had the Schwerin Palace expanded into a pleasure palace. Altlandsberg became "Royal Office". His successor, Friedrich Wilhelm I, the soldier king, had drills on the palace square. The castle fell into disrepair and burned down completely in 1757.

Source: altlandsberg.city/altlandsberg

After the devastation of the Thirty Years' War, Baron Otto von Schwerin, one of the most important statesmen of the "Great Elector", acquired the town of Alten Landsberg and its surroundings from 1654.

On the site of the castle and the walls of the previous owners, he had his country seat built from 1658 onwards, after leveling and incorporating the city's ramparts, diverting the course of the river, a palace with a courtyard (all brick buildings) surrounded by gardens and parks in the Dutch Baroque style.

The first construction phase was completed in 1662 in the presence of the electoral family. This was followed by the extension to a three-wing complex for the apartments for the "countryside" education of the elector's sons and the addition of 2 externally similar pavilions on the west side of the south and north wings, the castle church for the rapidly growing Reformed community in 1671 and of the premises for stately celebrations and representation in 1673.

When the Schwerin grandson transferred ownership of the castle and lordship to Prussia's King Friedrich I in 1708, the castle complex was expanded to a representative standard based on plans by Eosander. The only remaining monuments from this period are the royal portal of today's castle church with the stone initials of the young Prussian state, the eagle under the crown, and the remains of the park architecture associated with the royal water features.

With the decommissioning of the palace after the death of Friedrich I in 1713 by King Friedrich Wilhelm I, all transportable monuments, plants and trees were relocated to other palace complexes that were still in use, primarily Charlottenburg, under the control of the royal domain office. Occasional, mostly misused use of the palace and park during the usual ongoing domain operations was followed by neglect of security and maintenance. When using the kitchen in the basement of the festival pavilion on the occasion of the wedding of the district councilor in 1757, the entire palace was engulfed in flames by a chimney fire.

The former castle church, the head building of the south-west wing of the three-wing baroque castle that burned down, was rebuilt from 1765 to 1768 as the only part of it and was used by the Evangelical-Reformed community until 1971.

Sources :
schlossgut-altlandsberg.de/geschichte

de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altlandsberg#Sightseeing