The current presidential residence Schloss Bellevue remains in German history the first Neo-Classical palace that appeared in Prussia - the most powerful German state in the 18th and 19th Centuries. It was built in the end of the 18th Century for Prince Ferdinand of Prussia, the brother of King Friedrich II, and in 1786 the nobleman inaugurated his new summer residence. The impressive three-wing complex was created and designed by the architect Philipp Daniel Boumann with Baroque structure and ornaments (for example, the Corinthian columns around the main entrance), but clearly Classical facade. The palace is located amidst a tranquil green park alongside the river Spree. Especially attractive is the spectacular ballroom constructed and decorated by Carl Gotthard Langhans in 1791, which today is used for official receptions given by the president. Since the beginning of the last century, the place was no longer inhabited and was turned into an ethnological museum, until it was finally taken over and refurbished by the government of the Third Reich for a guesthouse. Schloss Bellevue was almost destroyed during the World War II and after the fall of the Nazi regime, in the 1950s, it had to be substantially restored. Almost immediately the venue became the Berlin's seat of the German president. After the reunification, when the German capital returned to Berlin, Schloss Bellevue became the main residence of the federal president.