Element Erde
Element Erde stands in Sanssouci Park, Potsdam, as a wheelchair-accessible statue within the French Rondel. François Gaspard Adam created it. Terraces, sightlines and circular sculpture groups shape the surrounding park, designed under Frederick the Great’s direction. The French Rondel brings together the classical elements earth, air, fire and water around a central fountain.
The original statue dates from the mid-eighteenth century, while Wolfgang Wille made the version visible today in 2007. Ceres teaches Triptolemus to plough. That scene links the earth element with agriculture, learning and human work. Twelve marble figures form the surrounding circle, presenting gods and goddesses from classical mythology.
French sculptors created these figures between 1748 and 1764, bringing Prussian and French artistic traditions together in the park. The sculptures stand among carefully arranged views. Their placement connects mythology with the landscape, while the fountain anchors the circular composition at its centre.
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The myTuur app is free, and once you are standing at a spot its story starts by itself.
Spots like this one are the stops myTuur strings into tours through Potsdam. In the app, each story begins where you stand: walk up to a spot and it starts, read it on screen or listen as you go, then follow the route to the next one.
What is myTuur?
myTuur is a free city-guide app. Its tours are built from spots, and each spot carries a story that starts when you get there, to read or to listen to as you like.