Our following stop after Bamberg, during our summer road trip, was in the largely reconstructed Capital of Saxony, Dresden. Towards the end of World War II 90% of the inner city was destroyed in air bombings from the US and British forces. After the war, the city centered was styled after modern socialist architecture common in many former Eastern German cities. Today, the beautiful intricately detailed romanesque, baroque, rococo, and renaissance buildings of Dresdens early history are surrounded by the blocky and garish buildings of its recent past.
The twice destroyed Semperoper, originally opened in 1841 then it was destroyed by a fire in 1869. The second design, like the first, was created by architect Gottfried Semper. Towards the end of WWII was the Semperoper destroyed by airstrikes and only the shell of the building remained. The reconstruction of the current building, which is almost an identical replica of the building before the war, took 40 years to complete.
The Protestant Frauenkirche was completely destroyed during WWII and the ruins were left for 50 years as a war memorial. After the renunciation of west and east german, reconstruction on the church was started and completed in 2005. One can see the original blackened stones and structures used in the reconstructed church. |
Surprisingly, of all the buildings and structures destroyed in 1945, the Fürstenzug (procession of princes) was only minimally damaged. Only a few of the 23,000 Meissen porcelain tiles were destroyed, leaving the masterpiece mostly unmolested. Meissen porcelain is the first European porcelain that’s still popular today. It’s hella expensive!
The above cathedral was built in secrecy in the predominately protestant Dresden City Commissioned by Polish King Augustus III. The construction workers were Italian and spoke little German, keeping the secrecy from the citizens.
We stayed in a boat hotel during our stay in Dresden. Sadly the beds were too small for both of us to sleep in one, but it actually worked in our favor because it was unbelievably hot. We were also there sadly during a youth trip so the shared showers were a bit busy and stinky. A bonus: we were able to walk from our hotel to the city center.