1.
Frederick William IV of Prussia
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Frederick William IV, the eldest son and successor of Frederick William III of Prussia, reigned as King of Prussia from 1840 to 1861. In politics, he was a conservative, and in 1849 rejected the title of Emperor of the Germans offered by the Frankfurt Parliament as not the Parliaments to give, in 1857, he suffered a stroke and was left incapacitated until his death. Born to Frederick William III by his wife Queen Louise, he was the favourite son. Frederick William was educated by tutors, many of whom were experienced civil servants. He also gained experience by serving in the Prussian Army during the War of Liberation against Napoleon in 1814. In 1823 he married Elisabeth Ludovika of Bavaria, since she was a Roman Catholic, the preparations for this marriage included difficult negotiations which ended with her conversion to Lutheranism. There were two wedding ceremonies—one in Munich, and another in Berlin, the couple had a very harmonious marriage, but childless. Frederick William opposed the idea of a unified German state, believing that Austria was divinely ordained to rule over Germany, Frederick William became King of Prussia on the death of his father in 1840. Through a personal union, he became the sovereign prince of the Principality of Neuchâtel. In 1842, he gave his fathers menagerie at Pfaueninsel to the new Berlin Zoo, despite being a devout Lutheran, his Romantic leanings led him to settle the Cologne church conflict by releasing the imprisoned Clemens August von Droste-Vischering, the Archbishop of Cologne. He also patronized further construction of Cologne Cathedral, Cologne having become part of Prussia in 1815, in 1844, he attended the celebrations marking the completion of the cathedral, becoming the first king of Prussia to enter a Roman Catholic building. He committed himself to German unification, formed a government, convened a national assembly. Once his position was more secure again, however, he quickly had the army reoccupy Berlin and in December dissolved the assembly, therefore, Frederick William would only accept the imperial crown after being elected by the German princes, as per the former empires ancient customs. In the kings eyes, only a reconstituted College of Electors could possess such authority, with the failed attempt by the Frankfurt Parliament to include the Habsburgs into a newly unified German Empire, the Parliament turned to Prussia. Seeing Austrian ambivalence towards Prussia taking a powerful role in German affairs. All German states, excluding those of the Habsburgs, would be unified under Hohenzollern authority, the German Confederation remained the common government of German Europe. The lower house was elected by all taxpayers, but in a system based on the amount of taxes paid. This constitution remained in effect until the dissolution of the Prussian kingdom in 1918, Frederick William IV is buried with his wife in the crypt underneath the Church of Peace in the park of Sanssouci, at Potsdam
2.
Frederick William III of Prussia
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Frederick William III was king of Prussia from 1797 to 1840. He ruled Prussia during the times of the Napoleonic Wars. Steering a careful course between France and her enemies, after a military defeat in 1806, he eventually and reluctantly joined the coalition against Napoleon in the Befreiungskriege. Following Napoleons defeat he was King of Prussia during the Congress of Vienna which assembled to settle the questions arising from the new. He was determined to unify the Protestant churches, to homogenize their liturgy, their organization, the long-term goal was to have fully centralized royal control of all the Protestant churches in the Prussian Union of churches. Frederick William was born in Potsdam in 1770 as the son of Frederick William II of Prussia and he was considered to be a shy and reserved boy, which became noticeable in his particularly reticent conversations distinguished by the lack of personal pronouns. This manner of speech came to be considered entirely appropriate for military officers. As a child, Frederick Williams father had him handed over to tutors and he spent part of the time living at Paretz, the estate of the old soldier Count Hans von Blumenthal who was the governor of his brother Prince Heinrich. They thus grew up partly with the Counts son, who accompanied them on their Grand Tour in the 1780s, Frederick William was happy at Paretz, and for this reason in 1795 he bought it from his boyhood friend and turned it into an important royal country retreat. He was a boy, but he grew up pious. His tutors included the dramatist Johann Engel, as a soldier he received the usual training of a Prussian prince, obtained his lieutenancy in 1784, became a colonel in 1790, and took part in the campaigns against France of 1792–1794. On 24 December 1793, Frederick William married Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, in the Kronprinzenpalais in Berlin, Frederick William lived a civil life with a problem-free marriage, which did not change even when he became King of Prussia in 1797. His wife Louise was particularly loved by the Prussian people, which boosted the popularity of the whole House of Hohenzollern, Frederick William succeeded to the throne on 16 November 1797. He also became, in union, the sovereign prince of the Principality of Neuchâtel. He had the Hohenzollern determination to retain personal power but not the Hohenzollern genius for using it, too distrustful to delegate responsibility to his ministers, he lacked the will to strike out and follow a consistent course for himself. Disgusted with the moral debauchery of his fathers court, Frederick Williams first endeavor was to restore morality to his dynasty. He was quoted as saying the following, which demonstrated his sense of duty and peculiar manner of speech, Every civil servant has an obligation, to the sovereign. It can occur that the two are not compatible, then, the duty to the country is higher, at first Frederick William and his advisors attempted to pursue a policy of neutrality in the Napoleonic Wars
3.
William I, German Emperor
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William I, or in German Wilhelm I, of the House of Hohenzollern was the King of Prussia and the first German Emperor, as well as the first Head of State of a united Germany. Under the leadership of William and his Minister President Otto von Bismarck, Prussia achieved the unification of Germany and the establishment of the German Empire. Contrary to the domineering Bismarck, William was described as polite, gentlemanly and, while a staunch conservative, the future king and emperor was born William Frederick Louis of Prussia in the Kronprinzenpalais in Berlin on 22 March 1797. As the second son of Prince Frederick William, himself son of King Frederick William II and his grandfather died the year he was born, at age 53, in 1797, and his father Frederick William III became king. He was educated from 1801 to 1809 by Johann Friedrich Gottlieb Delbrück, who was also in charge of the education of Williams brother, at age twelve, his father appointed him an officer in the Prussian army. William served in the army from 1814 onward, like his father he fought against Napoleon I of France during the part of the Napoleonic Wars known in Germany as the Befreiungskriege, and was reportedly a very brave soldier. He was made a Captain and won the Iron Cross for his actions at Bar-sur-Aube, the war and the fight against France left a lifelong impression on him, and he had a long-standing antipathy towards the French. In 1815, William was promoted to Major and commanded a battalion of the 1 and he fought under Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher at the Battles of Ligny and Waterloo. He also became an excellent diplomat by engaging in diplomatic missions after 1815, in 1816, William became the commander of the Stettiner Gardelandwehrbataillon and in 1818 was promoted to Generalmajor. The next year, William was appointed inspector of the VII. and this made him a spokesman of the Prussian Army within the House of Hohenzollern. He argued in favour of a strong, well-trained and well-equipped army, in 1820, William became commander of the 1. Gardedivision and in 1825 was promoted to commanding general of the III, in 1829, William married Princess Augusta von Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach after Princess Elisa Radziwill, his cousin whom he had been attracted to, was deemed an inappropriate match by his father. William had been forced to abandon the relationship with Elisa in 1826, Augusta was the daughter of Grand Duke Karl Friedrich von Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach. Their marriage was stable, but not a very happy one. In 1840 his older brother became King of Prussia, since he had no children, William was first in line to succeed him to the throne and thus was given the title Prinz von Preußen. Against his convictions but out of loyalty towards his brother, in 1847 William signed the bill setting up a Prussian parliament and took a seat in the upper chamber, the Herrenhaus. During the Revolutions of 1848, William successfully crushed a revolt in Berlin that was aimed at his elder brother, the use of cannon made him unpopular at the time and earned him the nickname Kartätschenprinz. Indeed, he had to flee to England for a while and he returned and helped to put down an uprising in Baden, where he commanded the Prussian army
4.
Kronprinzenpalais
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The Kronprinzenpalais is a landmark late Neoclassical-style building at one end of Unter den Linden in Berlin. It was a palace of the ruling Hohenzollern house of Prussia until the abolition of the monarchy at the end of World War I and it then became an annexe of the Berlin National Gallery, housing a preeminent collection of modern art. It was closed by the Nazis and the building was destroyed in World War II and it was rebuilt in 1968 and used by East Germany as a guest house for official visitors to their capital of East Berlin. Since German reunification it has used for exhibitions and cultural events. Johann Arnold Nering created the building in 1663–69 as the residence of Cabinet Secretary Johann Martitz. From 1706 to 1732, it was the residence of the Governor of Berlin. He and his wife Elisabeth Christine stayed there only intermittently before his accession to the throne in 1740 and he gave the Kronprinzenpalais to his brother Augustus William, after Augustus Williams death in 1758, his widow continued to use it until 1780. They remained there after he became king and the Palace was now called Königliches Palais, Johann Gottfried Schadow created his double statue of Crown Princess Louise and her sister Frederica, the Prinzessinnengruppe, in the palace in 1795–97. The future Emperor William I was born there on 22 March 1797, after Louises early death, Frederick William maintained a family shrine to her in the palace. In 1856–57, Johann Heinrich Strack extensively rebuilt the palace for William Is son, Prince Frederick William, Strack replaced the mansard roof with a third storey with Corinthian pillars, and added neo-classical details to the façade, whose columns he changed from Tuscan to Corinthian. The four statues above the entrance remained, but he added a tall columned portico surmounted by a balcony and he also built a setback addition on the east side of the building, with a colonnade on its Unter den Linden and Niederlagstraße sides. Their eldest son, who would be the last German Emperor as Wilhelm II, was born in the palace on 27 January 1859, Princess Victoria welcomed artists and scholars to the palace, including Heinrich von Angeli, Anton von Werner and Adolph von Menzel. However, after Frederick IIIs death in 1888 following a 99-day reign, she was usually at her new residence, Schloß Friedrichshof, beginning in 1905, it was used as a winter residence by Wilhelm IIs heir, Crown Prince Wilhelm, and his wife Crown Princess Cecilie. During the November revolution in Berlin in 1918, revolutionary leaders addressed the crowd from the ramp of the palace. After the dissolution of the monarchy, the became a possession of the State of Prussia. This was the first state promotion in Germany of Expressionist works, which were unpopular with large numbers of the public. It served as a model for institutions, notably the Museum of Modern Art in New York. After the Nazis came to power in 1933, there was a period of tolerance of modern art
5.
Berlin
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Berlin is the capital and the largest city of Germany as well as one of its constituent 16 states. With a population of approximately 3.5 million, Berlin is the second most populous city proper, due to its location in the European Plain, Berlin is influenced by a temperate seasonal climate. Around one-third of the area is composed of forests, parks, gardens, rivers. Berlin in the 1920s was the third largest municipality in the world, following German reunification in 1990, Berlin once again became the capital of all-Germany. Berlin is a city of culture, politics, media. Its economy is based on high-tech firms and the sector, encompassing a diverse range of creative industries, research facilities, media corporations. Berlin serves as a hub for air and rail traffic and has a highly complex public transportation network. The metropolis is a popular tourist destination, significant industries also include IT, pharmaceuticals, biomedical engineering, clean tech, biotechnology, construction and electronics. Modern Berlin is home to world renowned universities, orchestras, museums and its urban setting has made it a sought-after location for international film productions. The city is known for its festivals, diverse architecture, nightlife, contemporary arts. Since 2000 Berlin has seen the emergence of a cosmopolitan entrepreneurial scene, the name Berlin has its roots in the language of West Slavic inhabitants of the area of todays Berlin, and may be related to the Old Polabian stem berl-/birl-. All German place names ending on -ow, -itz and -in, since the Ber- at the beginning sounds like the German word Bär, a bear appears in the coat of arms of the city. It is therefore a canting arm, the first written records of towns in the area of present-day Berlin date from the late 12th century. Spandau is first mentioned in 1197 and Köpenick in 1209, although these areas did not join Berlin until 1920, the central part of Berlin can be traced back to two towns. Cölln on the Fischerinsel is first mentioned in a 1237 document,1237 is considered the founding date of the city. The two towns over time formed close economic and social ties, and profited from the right on the two important trade routes Via Imperii and from Bruges to Novgorod. In 1307, they formed an alliance with a common external policy, in 1415 Frederick I became the elector of the Margraviate of Brandenburg, which he ruled until 1440. In 1443 Frederick II Irontooth started the construction of a new palace in the twin city Berlin-Cölln
6.
Kingdom of Prussia
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It was the driving force behind the unification of Germany in 1871 and was the leading state of the German Empire until its dissolution in 1918. Although it took its name from the region called Prussia, it was based in the Margraviate of Brandenburg, the kings of Prussia were from the House of Hohenzollern. Prussia was a power from the time it became a kingdom, through its predecessor, Brandenburg-Prussia. Prussia continued its rise to power under the guidance of Frederick II, more known as Frederick the Great. After the might of Prussia was revealed it was considered as a power among the German states. Throughout the next hundred years Prussia went on to win many battles and it was because of its power that Prussia continuously tried to unify all the German states under its rule. Attempts at creation of a federation remained unsuccessful and the German Confederation collapsed in 1866 when war ensued between its two most powerful states, Prussia and Austria. The North German Confederation which lasted from 1867–1871, created a union between the Prussian-aligned states while Austria and most of Southern Germany remained independent. The North German Confederation was seen as more of an alliance of military strength in the aftermath of the Austro-Prussian War, the German Empire lasted from 1871–1918 with the successful unification of all the German states under Prussian hegemony. This was due to the defeat of Napoleon III in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71, in 1871, Germany unified into a single country, minus Austria and Switzerland, with Prussia the dominant power. Prussia is considered the predecessor of the unified German Reich. The Kingdom left a significant cultural legacy, today notably promoted by the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, in 1415 a Hohenzollern Burgrave came from the south to the March of Brandenburg and took control of the area as elector. In 1417 the Hohenzollern was made an elector of the Holy Roman Empire, after the Polish wars, the newly established Baltic towns of the German states including Prussia, suffered many economic setbacks. Many of the Prussian towns could not even afford to attend political meetings outside of Prussia, the towns were poverty stricken, with even the largest town, Danzig, having to borrow money from elsewhere to pay for trade. Poverty in these towns was partly caused by Prussias neighbors, who had established and developed such a monopoly on trading that these new towns simply could not compete and these issues led to feuds, wars, trade competition and invasions. However, the fall of these gave rise to the nobility, separated the east and the west. It was clear in 1440 how different Brandenburg was from the other German territories, not only did it face partition from within but also the threat of its neighbors. It prevented the issue of partition by enacting the Dispositio Achillea which instilled the principle of primogeniture to both the Brandenburg and Franconian territories, the second issue was solved through expansion
7.
Potsdam
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Potsdam is the capital and largest city of the German federal state of Brandenburg. It directly borders the German capital Berlin and is part of the Berlin/Brandenburg Metropolitan Region and it is situated on the River Havel,24 kilometres southwest of Berlins city centre. Potsdam was a residence of the Prussian kings and the German Kaiser, around the city there are a series of interconnected lakes and cultural landmarks, in particular the parks and palaces of Sanssouci, the largest World Heritage Site in Germany. The Potsdam Conference in 1945 was held at the palace Cecilienhof, the Filmstudio Babelsberg is the oldest large-scale film studio in the world. Potsdam developed into a centre of science in Germany in the 19th century, today, there are three public colleges, the University of Potsdam, and more than 30 research institutes in the city. The area was formed from a series of large moraines left after the last glacial period, today, the city is three-quarters green space, with just a quarter as urban area. There are about 20 lakes and rivers in and around Potsdam, such as the Havel, the Griebnitzsee, Templiner See, Tiefer See, Jungfernsee, Teltowkanal, Heiliger See, the highest point is the 114-metre high Kleiner Ravensberg. Potsdam is divided into seven city districts and nine new Ortsteile. The appearances of the city districts are quite different, the districts in the north and in the centre consist mainly of historical buildings, the south of the city is dominated by larger areas of newer buildings. Potsdam has an Oceanic climate, with cool, snowy winters, the average winter high temperature is 3.5 °C, with a low of −1.7 °C. Snow is common in the winter, summers are mild, with a high of 23.6 °C and a low of 12.7 °C. The name Potsdam originally seems to have been Poztupimi, a common theory is that it derives from an old West Slavonic term meaning beneath the oaks, i. e. the corrupted pod dubmi/dubimi. The area around Potsdam shows occupancy since the Bronze Age and was part of Magna Germania as described by Tacitus. After the great migrations of the Germanic peoples, Slavs moved in and it was first mentioned in a document in 993 AD as Poztupimi, when Emperor Otto III gifted the territory to the Quedlinburg Abbey, then led by his aunt Matilda. By 1317, it was mentioned as a small town and it gained its town charter in 1345. In 1573, it was still a market town of 2,000 inhabitants. Potsdam lost nearly half of its due to the Thirty Years War. After the Edict of Potsdam in 1685, Potsdam became a centre of European immigration and its religious freedom attracted people from France, Russia, the Netherlands and Bohemia
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Crypt
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A crypt is a stone chamber beneath the floor of a church or other building. It typically contains coffins, sarcophagi, or religious relics, originally, crypts were typically found below the main apse of a church, such as at the Abbey of Saint-Germain en Auxerre, but were later located beneath chancel, naves and transepts as well. Occasionally churches were raised high to accommodate a crypt at the level, such as St Michaels Church in Hildesheim. Crypt developed as a form of the Latin vault as it was carried over into Late Latin. It also served as a vault for storing important and/or sacred items, crypta, however, is also the female form of crypto hidden. The earliest known origin of both is in the Ancient Greek κρύπτω, the first person singular indicative of the verb to conceal, first known in the early Christian period, in particular North Africa at Chlef and Djemila in Algeria, and Byzantium at Saint John Studio in Constantinople. Where Christian churches have been built over mithraea, the mithraeum has often been adapted to serve as a crypt, crypts were introduced into Frankish church building in the mid-8th century, as a feature of its Romanization. Their popularity then spread widely in western Europe under Charlemagne. Examples from this period are most common in the early medieval West, for example in Burgundy at Dijon, after the 10th century the early medieval requirements of a crypt faded, as church officials permitted relics to be held in the main level of the church. By the Gothic period crypts were built, however burial vaults continued to be constructed beneath churches. In more modern terms, a crypt is most often a stone chambered burial vault used to store the deceased, crypts are usually found in cemeteries and under public religious buildings, such as churches or cathedrals, but are also occasionally found beneath mausolea or chapels on personal estates. Wealthy or prestigious families will often have a family crypt or vault in which all members of the family are interred, many royal families, for example, have vast crypts containing the bodies of dozens of former royalty. In some localities an above ground crypt is more commonly called a mausoleum, there was a trend in the 19th century of building crypts on medium to large size family estates, usually subtly placed on the edge of the grounds or more commonly incorporated into the cellar. After a change of owner these are often blocked up and the house deeds will not allow this area to be re-developed, catacomb Mausoleum Tumulus Ossuary Tomb Cemetery Media related to Crypt at Wikimedia Commons Chisholm, Hugh, ed. Crypt
9.
Church of Peace (Sanssouci)
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The Protestant Church of Peace is situated in the Marly Gardens on the Green Fence in the palace grounds of Sanssouci Park in Potsdam, Germany. The church was built according to the wishes and with the involvement of the artistically gifted King Frederick William IV and designed by the court architect. After Persius death in 1845, the architect Friedrich August Stüler was charged with continuing his work, building included work by Ferdinand von Arnim and Ludwig Ferdinand Hesse also. The church is located in the covered by the UNESCO World Heritage Site Palaces and Parks of Potsdam. The cornerstone of the churchhouse was laid on April 14,1845, the building was dedicated on September 24,1848, though construction continued until 1854. The structure resembles a High Medieval Italian monastery, Frederick William himself made the original sketches on which the design was to be based. He gave his court architect Ludwig Persius two main instructions, The church was to derive in form and size from the early Christian Basilica di San Clemente in Rome, under Frederick William, the church served as the chapel royal and as church for the parish of Brandenburger Vorstadt. The church is a basilica with three naves and no transept, with a free-standing belltower. The 13.5 m high central nave overlaps the side aisles, an arcade of central arches mark the crossing point. The religious Frederick William IV desired a flat coffered ceiling on the inside, the king saw the design of early Christian sacred buildings, converted from market and court halls, as particularly appropriate. He was trying to establish a reconciliation between the Protestant majority of the original Prussian state and the Catholics of the recently acquired lands. Since he associated Gothic architecture with the Catholic faith, he was looking for an alternative design vocabulary for the Prussian-Protestant church, skipping Martin Luther, he went back to early Christianity as an inspiration. However, he did not distinguish too finely between early Christian and High Medieval architecture - as long as it was Romanesque, an original Venetian mosaic from the early 13th century decorates the churchs apse. While he was crown prince Frederick William had it bought at auction for 385 thalers, the mosaic shows the enthroned Christ with the Book of Life, the right hand upheld in blessing. At each side stand Mary and John the Baptist, next to them stand the apostle Peter and Saint Cyprian, martyred by beheading in 258 and patron saint of Saint Cipriana, wearing chasubles. As an allegory for the Holy Spirit, a pigeon decorates the vertex of the hemisphere, over the heads of the archangels Raphael and Michael a lamb shines as a symbol of Christ. On the semicircle of the apse a Latin inscript reads, according to Martin Luthers translation, Lord, I have love for the site of your house and the place where your glory resides. The altar canopy, which rests on four green columns, was created from Siberian jasper and was a gift from Tsar Nicholas I of Russia
10.
Sanssouci Park
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Sanssouci Park is a large park surrounding Sanssouci Palace in Potsdam, Germany. Following the terracing of the vineyard and the completion of the palace, a baroque flower garden with lawns, flower beds, hedges and trees was created. In the hedge quarter 3,000 fruit trees were planted, the greenhouses of the numerous nurseries contained oranges, melons, peaches and bananas. The goddesses Flora and Pomona, who decorate the entrance obelisk at the park exit, were placed there to highlight the connection of a flower, fruit. With the expansion of the site after the creation of more buildings and it began in the east at the 1748 obelisk and over the years was extended all the way to the New Palace, which marks its end in the west. In 1764 the picture gallery was constructed, followed by the New Chambers in 1774 and they flank the palace and open the alley up to rondels with the fountains, surrounded by marble statues. From there paths lead in a pattern between tall hedges to further parts of the gardens. In his organisation of the park, Frederick continued what he had begun in Neuruppin and Rheinsberg. During his stay as Crown Prince in Neuruppin, where he was commander of a regiment from 1732 to 1735, he ordered that a flower, fruit and vegetable garden be laid out in the grounds of his abode. He already deviated here from the organisation of baroque gardens, which concerned themselves purely with the model represented by Versailles, by combining the beautiful. He also followed this principle in Rheinsberg, Frederick invested heavily in the fountain system of Sanssouci Park, as water features were a firm component of baroque gardens. But the Neptune Grotto, finished in 1757 in the part of the park, was used just as little for its intended function as the fountain facilities. Atop the Ruinenberg, roughly six hundred metres away, was a basin from which no water could arrive into the park. It did not succeed until steam power was employed one hundred years later, in October 1842 an 81.4 horsepower steam engine built by August Borsig started working and made the water jet of the Great Fountain below the vineyard terraces rise to a height of 38 metres. A pumping station on the Havelbucht was especially built for this machine and it was commissioned by Frederick William IV and built by Ludwig Persius between 1841 and 1843, in the manner of a Turkish Mosque with a minaret as a chimney. Many years earlier, Frederick William III had acquired an area which bordered Sanssouci Park to the south, there Karl Friedrich Schinkel and Ludwig Persius built Charlottenhof Palace on the site of a former farm house and Peter Joseph Lenné was commissioned with the garden design. With the baroque flower and fruit and vegetable gardens from the Frederician era in mind, broad meadows created visual avenues between Charlottenhof, the Roman Baths and the New Palace with the Temple of Friendship developed from the time of Frederick the Great. Casually placed groups of bushes and trees and a moat that was broadened into a pond at its southeastern end beautify the large park
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Belgium: Grand Cordon of the Order of Leopold in 1850.[9]
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