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A spiritualistic cool box

How most eerie things can be united with Prussian pragmatism can be seen in another exotic though small building in the New Garden (Neuer Garten). A pyramid – similar to the wonder of the world seen in Cairo – displays enigmatic occult signs and hieroglyphs. The planet symbols at the door must originally have held an astrological or alchemical meaning since the building owner, Friedrich Wilhelm II., was a member of the Secret Society of the Rosicrucians and had a lifelong inclination towards the paranormal.
The pyramid, built between 1791 and 1792 by C.G. Langhans as an ice house, serve as a royal fridge where food was kept during the summer. At the end of each winter ice was brought to the ice house from the Heiligen See („sacred lake“); reportedly it did last until the end of autumn next year.