Schloss Babelsberg is the centrepiece of Babelsberg Park — a turreted Gothic Revival castle rising above the Havel on a wooded hill, designed by Ludwig Persius in 1833 for Prince William of Prussia and significantly expanded over the following decades. The castle is deliberately English in character, with round towers, crenellations, and pointed windows that look more like Windsor than Prussia. The contrast with the neoclassical restraint of Charlottenhof and the Rococo of Sanssouci makes it one of the more distinctive buildings in the Potsdam landscape.
The interior is open for guided tours in the warmer months — the state rooms are elaborately decorated in the historicist style of the 1870s, when Wilhelm I was using the palace as his summer headquarters. The park surrounding the castle is designed in the English romantic style, with long views across the Havel and woodland paths leading to the water's edge. The Babelsberg Film Studios adjoin the park on its eastern side.