Belvedere on Pfingstberg Hill, Potsdam, Germany - Castles on Waymarking.com

The Belvedere on Pfingstberg Hill, modeled after Italian renaissance castles is part of Potsdam's World Heritage Gardens and Castles. Originally, King Frederick Wilhelm IV, the "Romantic on the Thron" designed the building similar to Villa Caprarola north of Rome, which he visited in 1728. He added two towers to the design. Ironically, the two towers were the only part of the building ever to be completed. The towers and the water reservoir were built between 1847 and 1852. In 1852, works on the building came to a halt in favor of the Orangery building in Sanssouci Park. The ailing king surrendered his thron to his brother in 1858 and died in 1861, leaving the building still incomplete. King Wilhelm I had the fragments finished in 1863 and the castle remained unfinished.

After World War II, the building ended up within the boundaries of the Russian Garrison in Potsdam. Ever since the erection of the Berlin Wall in 1961, the building was completely off limits since its towers offered a great view over the wall and hence a great opportunity to plot escapes. The river in the picture right was part of the border between East Germany and West Berlin.

As a result, the building completely decayed and at the end of the 1980s, all that was left was an ivy overgrown ruin. In 1987, a group of young citizen started an initative to rebuild the castle, knowing that the then communist government wouldn't be very supportive of the idea. Things changed after reunification and with the help of prominent sponsors the building is now more beautiful than ever before.

Unfortunately, the Wikipedia article about the castle is only in German, but we found good descriptions in English at Discover Potsdam and at Prussian Palaces and Gardens.