Old Market Square, Potsdam

The Old Market Square (German: Alter Markt) is a centrally located square in downtown Potsdam which forms the historical center of the city. The square consists of the area around St. Nicholas' Church. Today the term refers in particular to the area directly in front of the church. It is bordered by several prestigious historical buildings.

The City Palace was originally erected in 1666 under the order of Elector Frederick William. At the time the spot was part of a castle grounds. The Old City Hall was developed between 1753–1755 under the direction of architects Jan Bouman and Carl Ludwig Hildebrant. The marble obelisk in front of the church was added in 1753, following a design by Georg Wenzeslaus von Knobelsdorff, in order to emphasize the Roman character of the square. The most famous building in the square, St. Nicholas' Church, was erected from 1830–1837 as a centrally-planned building after classical-style designs by Karl Friedrich Schinkel.

The buildings in the square were largely destroyed by World War II air raids by the Royal Air Force in April 1945. St. Nicholas' Church and the Old City Hall were immediately rebuilt after 1945, and the marble obelisk was restored in 1979. The shaft of the obelisk originally depicted rulers of the House of Hohenzollern who had heavily influenced Potsdam: Frederick William, Elector of Brandenburg, as well as the kings Frederick I, Frederick William I, and Frederick the Great. Upon restoration the references to the old rulers were removed and replaced by portraits of popular Potsdam architects Georg Wenzeslaus von Knobelsdorff, Carl von Gontard, Karl Friedrich Schinkel, and Friedrich Ludwig Persius. Other war ruins were demolished and removed, including those of the City Palace and Barberini Palace. The square was thus left open on the south side. Between 1971 and 1977, a modern-style building for the Fachhochschule Potsdam was added to the west side of the square. Shortly before the fall of the Berlin Wall, new construction of a theater began in the former location of the City Palace. Its skeleton was torn down several years after the local government decided to bring new construction in line with the historical style. A new location for the theater (today the Hans Otto Theater) was selected on the shore of the Tiefer See in the city. In 2007 incremental reconstruction of the entire square was resumed.

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