From BZ/dpa
The Palaces and Gardens Foundation had already announced it, now they are getting serious: Due to savings, the picture gallery in Sanssouci and Glienicke Palace will remain closed next year. More closures are imminent.
The picture gallery in Potsdam’s Sanssouci Park and Glienicke Palace in Berlin are to remain closed to visitors in the coming year. The Prussian Palaces and Gardens Foundation Berlin-Brandenburg (SPSG) announced that the reason for this was necessary savings.
Public subsidies could not be increased in the coming year either and remained at the level of the previous year despite high inflation, rising energy and construction costs and regular wage increases. The foundation alone cannot compensate for the difference between increases in expenditure and donations. The closure of the two facilities in 2024 will save around 300,000 euros, it said.
Several reasons were decisive for the decision. For example, operational layoffs in the Fridericus Servicegesellschaft der Prussian Castles and Gardens (FSG) should be “absolutely” avoided, the foundation explained. The employees of the two affected facilities should therefore be working in other castles in 2024.
The castles in Königs Wusterhausen, Caputh, Paretz, Oranienburg and Rheinsberg were also intended to be opened in 2024 as “cultural beacons in the regions”.
In 2016, the foundation had to close six facilities to save money. “The decision that has now been made is equally painful for SPSG and FSG and brings back memories of 2016,” it said. Since then, these facilities could only be visited on selected days.
The foundation warns: “If the grants to the SPSG do not increase significantly in 2025, the picture gallery and Glienicke Castle will face the same fate. In addition, the closures of other houses in the Unesco World Heritage Site would be inevitable.”
Frederick the Great had the picture gallery built between 1755 and 1763/64 for his paintings. He presented nearly 180 works of Flemish and Dutch Baroque painting, Italian Renaissance and Baroque painting, and sculpture.