Me in Zwinger's courtyard

Dresden! A beautifully created gothic city that is located in today's Germany - the formal electoral and royal seat and capital of Saxony (today capital of the Free State of Saxony).

Dresden is a city called "Florence on the Elbe" - indicating how rich its art treasures are and how splendid its architecture is.

Having spent only one day in Dresden of Germany, I will be limited  with only the must-sees of this unique city, however Dresden has a remarkable richness in terms of its nature, buildings, gothic style, its modern face and liveliness, so whoever goes there, at least two or three days must be spent to see the whole city and all of its beauties. Here, you will see the historical face of it only  (But I think EVEN THAT is enough!)

The first time I entered the city, I had thought "how magnificent and how small", and recalled the perfect architectural beauty of Paris with realising how similar those two cities actually looked.

Me at the entrance of the gardens

Well, compared to Paris, Dresden is a very little compact city and remarkably new - that's because after the war years, the city was all ruined and had to be rebuilt later on, now looking exactly the way it was before the destroying. This is the good thing about the city - nothing have changed! All remained the same thanks to the successful German architects! This is very obvious when you see the old paintings of the city to see how it looked before the destruction.

What can be seen in Dresden?

Not being too popular in Europe, Dresden is a city that is not heard much probably, but there are very beautiful buildings in the heart of it. The most important ones and the ones you should see are Zwinger, Hofkirche, Frauenkirche (In each city, there must be a "Frauenkirche" in Germany anyway!), Taschenbergpalais. Besides, for some art lovers, there is a very special piece of art, Raphael's "Sixtine Madonna" which I will mention later on!

one of the figures near the terrace

After German residents of the city leave, in history, Slavs come to this part of Elbe and the name Dresden derives from the word "drezdane" which means "place of the inhabitants of the marsh woods". The oldest village was probably in the Neustädter Markt and the first town centre was at the old market. I will not write a lot about the history here as I do not think Dresden has a very interesting one.

The city centre starts at the end of the Augustusbrücke, where a group of figures "Der Morgen" (The Morning), installed at the base of Brühl Terrace, which was called "the balcony of Europe", linking it with Schlossplatz, stand. There you will see four figures depicting the "four times of a day". The terrace was converted into magnificent gardens in 18th century. This gardens have been my favourite part in the city, and I have spent approximately one hour there. The natural beauties in the garden, view by the river when you sit on the seats, the silence and beautifully created figures are just wonderful!

a part of the garden from my camera

the cathedral

Theaterplatz - the cathedral (Catholic Court Church, today the cathedral SS. Trinitatis) and Semper Opera House are on this area. I loved this church more as probably it was built with Roman late baroque style and its colour is a bit dark because of its surface (the material they use to build these buildings is some kind of chalky stone and it gets dirty very easily). This one was built by catholics as their main place of praying, while Frauenkirche was built by the protestants. The Semper Opera House can be a special time activity really, it's huuuge and have a very beautiful interior design. It witnessed a number of famous opera premieres, especially some of the famous Richard Strauss. 

The Georgenbau, with its neo-Renaissance style and its entrance opposite Augustusbrücke, is also worth seeing. This building was built first around 1530 and burnt down in 1701. The one you will see was built later on (the pictures on the right).

Left of this building, you will see a huuuuge yellow-white-black fresco in Augustusstrasse, named Fürstenzug, that is 102 metre long - that one was originally created in sgraffito first but then they had to change it with tiles as the work was showing the signs of weathering. The 800-year history of the House of the Wettin is portrayed here with illustrations of 35 margraves, dukes, electoral princes and kings on nearly 24.000 Meissen china tiles. The work will make you stand there and watch the wall for at least a couple of minutes - there is a real story indeed (see below).

At my back, the huge Fürstenzug

The Johanneum is also another building you will come across on this street - a building that served as an art gallery up to 19th century and later as an armoury and a transport museum lately (see below).

The Johanneum

Frauenkirche and the statue of Martin Luther

Both Protestantism and Catholism had effects on the city; there are two main churches, one serving for protestants and the other for Catholics. The one built for Catholics was mentioned above.

So the protestant church... Frauenkirche, however, with its cupola (Stone Bell), was built for the protestant believers - a very beautiful church in the heart of Dresden, has been the proud symbol of Protestantism. The original church was, very unfortunately, ruined during the second world war, and its reconstruction was completed in 2004 - so the church is actually very new but nothing looks different compared to the original one. 

Church's reconstruction costed approx. €250 million; this shows how important the rebuilding of this jewel of baroque style architecture was! Not to mention that, Frauenkirche was always regarded as the main church of the German Protestants in the old times and it obviously remains as one of the most important pieces of protestantism. 

The interior design of the church is decorated with very simple paintings and soft colours - but yet this is another characteristic of protestant churches! I think the entrance was free, but you must check before you get in.

The statue of Martin Luther right in front of the Frauenkirche, another important piece, can be seen after a visit to the church. Tourists mostly prefer taking pictures there with the Martin Luther statue!

Interior design of the Frauenkirche

Another important church is in the Altmarkt area, near the New Town Hall, named Kreuzkirche. This church was destroyed several times because of fires, wars and other reasons. Especially during the Seven Years' War, the Prussians wrecked the church so it had to be rebuilt in a new baroque style in 1792. The interior of the church has been kept intentionally simple. The church is the home of the world-famous Kreuzchor. It was there that the Reformation was introduced in Dresden in 16th century and peaceful demonstrations against the East German regime began in 1989.

the Kreuzkirche at the back

Another interesting building, The Yenidze is a mosque-looking building (as I know, built as a mosque but then used for other purposes), designed in a very oriental style and quite beautiful at nights with its glass dome illuminated when it gets dark - used as a cigarette factory earlier, renovated and converted to function as an office building and a venue for events later on. It's really strange to see such an oriental building at the heart of the city, which makes that area look like an eastern compound.

the Yenidze

And now, the most beautiful baroque building of Germany, Zwinger, the most exciting one (I mean, really exciting - it is a great feeling to stand in the middle of the inner room), the symbol of the city Dresden... It started as a construction of a festival ground on the bastion of the city fortifications in 18th century. The Zwinger courtyard is a huge area, and I took many photos there - which you can see below (only one here). The Glockenspiel Pavilion with its 40 bells of Meissen china dominates the south eastern section. The Wall Pavilion is opposite this. This huge building was also badly damaged but fortunately it is now as beautiful as it was before.

The Zwinger Art Gallery is a place all art lovers should visit - the Gallery of Old Masters (as you can guess from its name) exhibits many important European paintings, and the one I mentioned before, Raphael's Madonna is also in this gallery at the Hall of the Sixtine Madonna.
All these are located on the historical part of Dresden, however, there are plenty of modern buildings as well, but for that, you have to get a bit more inside. To eat, I would not suggest the cafes on streets as they are poor at quality but I might suggest Karstadt, a shopping mall (the company itself is based in Essen, but you can find its branches in other cities as well) very famous in Germany. You can find it in almost every city of Germany and their food is quite rich at diversity. Whenever I enter a Karstadt in Germany (I did this in Munich a few times!), I eat A LOT. Delicious, excellent, not very expensive - not expensive at all. So this is a suggestion but you might want to have your lunch on streets anyway, this is also another good way of experiencing the city atmosphere - I generally love doing this. Besides eating, you might want to shop after the lunch, so you will find everything you look for in any Karstadt again (Nope, they're not paying me for advertising them, but I do really love their food mmmm...)

I have not mentioned anything about transportation, because there you will not need it. The city is quite small and you can walk everywhere!

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If you have been there before, and have anything to add, please feel free to comment!