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ornamentally laid out with statues and basins, and goes on to the wall at the end, which
separates the pleasure-garden proper on the west side from the park, meeting near the
middle of the park the Marble Colonnade (Fig. 512), a charming building made by
Knobelsdorf. This was an imitation of the colonnade of the bosket at Versailles, but
unfortunately it was broken up later, so that its columns could be given to the marble palace
built in the reign of Frederick William II. As an end and point de vue a great grotto con-
struction was contemplated, but after the Seven Years' War the New Palace was built a
little behind, and the grotto had to give place to this.

FIG. 513. SANS-SOUCI, POTSDAM—THE CHINESE TEA-HOUSE

In the park itself the king had several small buildings set up, so as to bring the
northern hill into connection with it, and among them the beautiful Belvedere, a two-
storied rotunda with Corinthian columns round it on the north-western slope. Below was
a Chinese pagoda; and farther to the east, immediately above the castle, Roman ruins were
built on the hill. Round them there was to be a reservoir, and they were to give a point de
vue for the rather long colonnade, which is m front of the back facade of the castle. In
the south-east corner of the park there was still standing, a little while before the Seven
Years' War broke out, the Chinese Tea-House (Fig. 513), one of the most freakish attempts
in this foreign style. The cheerful little rotunda has an overhanging roof with a China-
man on the top, supported on gilded palm-trunks; round these columns are grouped
Chinese figures taking tea. The whole place is merely a fancy, and it lies prettily in the
middle of a space bordered with hedges, which opens on three of its sides into small grass
paths, narrowing as they advance. Vases made of Misnian porcelain stand at the end.