Charlottenburg Palace

Schloss Charlottenburg, Charlottenburg Palace, is the largest surviving royal palace in Berlin and the best place in the city to see how the Prussian court actually lived. It was begun in the 1690s as a summer residence for Sophie Charlotte, wife of the first king in Prussia, and kept expanding for the next hundred years as each ruler added a wing.

Inside, the highlights are the baroque state apartments in the old palace and the rococo rooms in the New Wing, including the Golden Gallery and the porcelain cabinet lined floor to ceiling with Chinese and Japanese pieces. The palace was badly damaged in World War II, so a lot of what you see is careful reconstruction, a point the audio guide makes openly.

The garden behind the palace is reason enough to come even if you skip the interiors. It was laid out as a formal French garden, later reworked in the English landscape style, and it is free to enter. The Belvedere teahouse and the mausoleum of Queen Luise stand among the trees, and in summer locals treat the lawns as a park rather than a monument.

The palace sits in the western part of Charlottenburg, reached by U-Bahn and bus, with the Ku'damm and KaDeWe a short ride away. Combined with the museum buildings directly across the street it makes a comfortable half day away from the crowds in Mitte, and it works well on a day when the weather is uncertain.