On a nice sunny weekday, I decided to do a day trip, this time heading north of Berlin and visiting a few smaller towns. I started out by heading to the town of Templin, located about 80km north of the German capital. After reaching the train station I headed on to visit the city center on foot approaching it from the northeast. Here I passed by the beautiful Prenzlauer Tor, one of the medieval city gates that dot the town, part of the medieval walls which still fully encircle the old town totaling 1735m. I decided to walk along the walls and admire their simple yet intriguing architecture all the way to the next city gate. Then I changed direction and this time headed towards the center of the old town where the main church is located. I passed by some beautiful and picturesque half-timbered houses and then reached the church of St Mary Magdalene. It was unfortunately closed so I just had to admire it from the outside, with the nice colorful Baroque tower dating to the 18th century jutting out towards the sky. From the church, I then headed back out towards the walls once more and passing by another of the medieval gates, the Mühlentor. From here I followed the walls once again and reached then the next gate, the 13th century Berliner Tor; the largest and nicest of those three still standing. In this tower, I was able to enter as they had set up a small shop inside for the sale of handmade knitted cloths. They let me head upstairs and reach the small terrace from where I had a nice partial view of the old town from above. After descending back down to ground level, I then headed again towards the center of the city and ended up at the main square, the Am Markt. In the middle stands the nice Baroque town hall and all around it were the stalls of the weekly market, which made the area quite lively and filled with people. Once I had toured the whole old town it was time to head to the train station and catch a ride to the next town: Zehdenick. Once there I got off the train and headed on foot towards the city center. As I walked through the old town, I passed by the main church, the Stadtkirche. Dating to the 13th century, it suffered damage throughout its history, particularly during the 1801 fire which meant it had to rebuild in a Neoclassical style. Only the base of its bell tower still features the original Gothic masonry while the rest had to be rebuilt in the new style. The church was closed so not being able to visit its interior made me continued on the tour of the city. Not too far from the church, just outside the old town I then reached the ruins of what was once the Zehdenick Abbey. Once a Cistercian nunnery founded in 1250, it grew in size and power until it was dissolved, like many other abbeys and monasteries, during the Reformation. Its final blow came with the Thirty Years' War when the buildings were mostly destroyed. Nowadays just part of its once large complex is still standing, including the north and west wings, parts of the cloister, and the external walls of the dormitory. Today the remaining buildings belong to the church once again and are used to provided accommodation for people associated with it. From there I then headed back through the old town and by the nice town hall, which like the main church was damaged by fire in 1801 and had to be then rebuilt in a neoclassical style. After I finished touring the rest of the town I decided to head back to the train station and a train to the next destination. I reached the train station of Sachsenhausen, where after getting off I headed to the infamous Sachsenhausen concentration camp. Like many other camps I had visited, it is now a museum and memorial for the crimes committed within its walls. Used from 1936 to the end of the Third Reich in May 1945, it mainly held political prisoners of all nationalities. Its main role was as a labor camp outfitted with several subcamps, a gas chamber, and a medical experimentation area. Prisoners were treated harshly, fed sparingly, and killed openly. Those held captive in Sachsenhausen were the men and women which the Third Reich wanted dead, not just because of their religion, but because of their political beliefs and their power over those who listened to them. So unlike those concentration camps used for ethnic cleansing which were in remote locations in order to be partly hidden from the general view, this had to be clearly visible, close to a major town and with imposing perimeter walls, in order to send a clear message. As I walked through the grounds of the complex I noticed that the ground featured some darker areas which now mark where the barracks once used to stands. Obviously, as they were made with wood and other cheap materials they were either destroyed at the end of the war or shortly after. This helps though the visitors get an idea of the size of the camp and of the buildings that made it up. I then visited the museum located inside two of the main buildings where objects, photos, and other testimonies of life in the camp were laid out in a very informative manner. Despite the sadness of the whole exhibit, I was glad to have visited in order to learn even more about such a terrible part of history. After the visit to the camp, I then continued on foot and reached the town of Oranienburg of which Sachsenhausen is one of the suburbs. I walked through the city and then reached the main attraction of the town, the Oranienburg Palace. This beautiful Baroque castle/palace was built in 1651 to replace an older structure, for the Great Elector’s wife, Louise Henriette, who was born Princess of Orange-Nassau. Her son, King Frederick I had the palace expanded and magnificently furnished in memory of his mother at the end of the 17th century. By 1700, this palace was considered the most beautiful of all Prussian residences, and later both the palace and garden experienced another golden age during the middle of the 18th century. As I reached the structure, I then headed inside and bought a ticket to visit its museum. Despite being nearly totally destroyed during the air raids in WWII, the castle was then rebuilt in a way as close as possible to the original. The interior, though obviously suffered the most particularly in the decorations and furniture. Nevertheless, together with some pieces of art which survived the war, others were brought here from other locations. Particularly impressive was the Porcelain chamber with an original dutch style porcelain display and original ceiling paintings. Then in other rooms were some nice works of art, royal ornamental silver pieces on display in the Silver Vault, and a series of tapestries extolling the heroic deeds of the Great Elector. Among the pieces of art were also some interesting paintings by famous artists such as the Flemish painter Anthony van Dyck. After the visit to the museum, I then exited the castle and tried to access the gardens next to it, finding out though that they were actually separate and required a different entry fee. I thus decided to skip the visit then and head back through the city and on to the train station from where I took a local train finally taking me back home to nearby Berlin.
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