Not A Mosque

Image from Google Maps is by Henrik Bortels


Image from German Geograph is by Colin Smith

Image from Flickr is by Gertrud K.

Inside view (a rare view);

Image from Flickr is by Musebrarian

Link to a nice video of inside by Musebrarian (Richard Urban).

This impressive mosque like building is not a mosque but an old steam driven pump house located on bay of the Havel River at Potsdam.

Basic purpose of the pump house was to supply water to the fountains in Sanssouci Park built around 1748 at the behest of Frederick the Great. Frederick wanted a lot of water for his Sanssouci Park. Original plans intended to draw water from the Havel River by means of windmills into the high basin on the mountain, where a tank with a capacity of about 7600 cubic meters was built. The water then would flow under the park through a tubular system to bring the water up into the fountains. Though the king spent a great deal of money into the project but system didn't work and after many years of effort, Frederick's dream of fountains was finally given up in 1780.

However his dream was finally fulfilled by Frederick William IV in October 1842 when a 81.4 horsepower steam engine, located underneath the dome of the mosque shaped building was inaugurated, allowing jets of water from the great fountain in front of Sanssouci Palace to reach an imposing height of 38 meters.

The pump house was designed by Ludwig Persius, a Prussian architect. It is reported that the king Frederick William IV was very impressed by Turkish architecture and wanted something similar in Potsdam also, hence the dome and the minaret - which is actually the smoke stack of the steam boiler.

The steam driven pump built by August Borsig, was considered an engineering marvel at that time. Although now days the fountains get water by means of electrical pumps, the steam engine at mosque like pump house is still functional and has been preserved as a piece of technical museum.

Main source of info: spsg.de 

View in Google Maps

Edit Note June 27, 2020
Dead links/defunct photos removed and new photos added.