Just 30 minutes from Berlin to the city’s most beautiful walking trail: once a forbidden place on the “death strip,” today a UNESCO World Heritage Site—with a church that lies on the shore like a Venetian ship.

With Brandenburg’s oldest Baroque palace and the last Prussian palace ever built, Potsdam undoubtedly has some significant landmarks to offer. But it is not only the impressive palace landscape that characterizes the city: there is a very special district that is deeply marked by German history and was considered a restricted area in the “death strip” for decades. Today, it is one of the most beautiful walking trails near Berlin — the UNESCO World Heritage Site in Sacrow, which was added to the UNESCO list in 1992 as an extension of the “Palaces and Parks of Potsdam and Berlin” World Heritage Site.

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The UNESCO World Heritage Site covers more than 2,000 hectares, includes numerous parks, palaces, gardens, and buildings between Potsdam and Berlin, and is one of the outstanding examples of European garden and architectural art of the 18th and 19th centuries. The Heilandskirche (Church of the Savior) at the port of Sacrow was built between 1841 and 1844 on behalf of King Frederick William IV and is considered a unique example of Italian-inspired church architecture with a free-standing bell tower (campanile). Due to its location directly on Jungfernsee, a part of the Havel River, the church looks like a “Venetian ship moored on the shore” – a deliberately chosen symbol of retreat and tranquility.

For decades, the church was located directly in the border area between the GDR and West Berlin, as the Berlin Wall and the death strip ran across its property. From 1961 to 1989, the entire site, including the church building, was inaccessible and fell into disrepair. The GDR border troops used the bell tower as a watchtower at times and sealed off the interior of the church. On Christmas Eve 1989, shortly after the fall of the Wall, a church service was held there again for the first time. Starting in the 1990s, the church underwent extensive restoration and now shines again in its original beauty.

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Sacrow Palace (also known as Sacrower Haus) is located not far from the Church of the Savior in Sacrow Palace Park , a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The park was designed in the 19th century by the renowned landscape architect Peter Joseph Lenné and is a central connecting element within Potsdam’s cultural landscape. Its winding paths, carefully planned sightlines, and landscape references connect Sacrow with other parts of Potsdam’s lake district, such as Glienicke Park and the New Garden. Today, temporary exhibitions and cultural events are held on the castle grounds.