Tourist Attractions in Meissen

Albertinum The Albertinum, an art gallery with a collection of international standing, was built by Carl Adolf Canzler in Dresden in 1884-87, incorporating part of the old Arsenal (Zeughaus) of 1559-63. It was named after the then king of Saxony, Albert.

Leipzig - Augustusplatz Augustusplatz originally lay outside the Leipzig town walls, and until 1831 one of the old town gates, the Grimma Gate, stood here.

In the Augustusplatz are several attractions, including an Egyptian Museum, the University, the railroad station and many others.

Blue Wonder Between the outer districts of Blasewitz and Loschwitz in Dresden the Elbe is spanned by the Loschwitzer Brücke, popularly known as the "Blaues Wunder". This is a steel suspension bridge with a span of 141.5 m/464ft which at the time of its construction (1891-93) caused some sensation.

Dresden - Bruhl Terrace The Brühlsche Terrasse in Dresden, famed as the "balcony of Europe", is best approached from the Schlossplatz by a broad flight of steps. This area on the site of the old ramparts was granted to Count Heinrich von Brühl (1700-63), an intimate of Frederick Augustus II (Augustus III) and from 1733 Director of the Royal Art Collection, who in 1738 had it laid out as a pleasure garden, with a number of buildings which have not survived. In 1814 the terrace was opened to the public and the flight of steps at the west end was built. The sculptured groups on the staircase representing Morning, Noon, Evening and Night (by J. Schilling, 1863-68) were replaced in 1908 by bronze casts.

Dresden - Catholic Court Church The Hofkirche of Dresden, built between 1738 and 1755, was raised to cathedral status in 1980.

The site of the church, at the end of the bridge over the Elbe, was chosen by the Elector as a position commanding the Elbe area. The church, in Italian High Baroque style, was designed by the Roman architect Gaetano Chiaveri. After his departure in 1743 the work was continued by Sebastian Wetzel and others. The church was consecrated in 1751 and finally completed in 1755.

During the devastating Allied bombardment of 1945 the interior was burned out and most of the vaulting collapsed, leaving only the tower unscathed. The church was restored after the war.

The exterior of the church is striking, with its 85.5m/280ft high tower and its 78 statues in niches and on the balustrades. Notable features of the interior are the processional ambulatories, Balthasar Permoser's magnificently carved pulpit (1722), the altarpiece of the Ascension (by Mengs, 1750-51) and the Silbermann organ (1750-53), Silbermann's last and finest work. In four burial vaults are the remains of kings and princes of Saxony. An urn contains the heart of Augustus the Strong; his body was buried in Krakow.

Dresden Dresden lies in a wide basin in the upper Elbe valley, which extends for a distance of 40km/25mi from Meissen to Pirna between the foothills of the Eastern Erzgebirge, the steep scarp of the Lusatian granite plateau and the Elbsandsteingebirge (Elbe Sandstone Hills). Dresden has been favored over the centuries by its beautiful setting, its agreeable climate and its location on important trade routes.

Dresden - Ernst-Thalmann-Strasse From the busy Pirnaischer Platz, Ernst-Thälmann-Strasse (1954-57), Dresden's main east-west artery, runs west to Postplatz. This is the beginning of the new city center developed since the Second World War.

Dresden - Gallery of Old Masters On the north side of Dresden's Zwinger is a linking wing built in 1847-54 by Gottfried Semper, who played a leading part in the architectural development of Dresden in the 19th century. At the west end of this wing is the Picture Gallery of Old Masters, one of the world's great art galleries, whose treasures include works by Flemish and Dutch painters of the 15th and 17th centuries (van Dyck, Rubens, Frans Hals, Rembrandt, Vermeer, etc.), German painting of the 16th-18th centuries (Dürer, Holbein, Cranach, Graff, Tischbein, etc.), Spanish and French painting of the 17th and 18th centuries (Velázquez, Murillo; Poussin, etc.) and - the high point of the collection - Italian painting of the 15th-18th centuries, particularly Renaissance works (Raphael, "Sistine Madonna"; Giorgione, "Sleeping Venus"; Titian, "The Tribute Money"; Botticelli, Correggio, the Carracci, Guido Reni, Tintoretto, etc.).

Dresden - Georgentor Opposite the entrance to the Cathedral in Dresden, at the end of Augustusstrasse, stands the Georgentor, the first part of the Schloss to be restored after the war (1964-69). On the west side is a Renaissance doorway from the original building. The sculptural decoration, including the equestrian statue of Duke George, was the work of Christian Behrens.

Grimma The main features of interest in Grimma (30km/20mi southeast of Leipzig) are the Frauenkirche (Early Gothic, 1230-40), the Augustinian monastery (c. 1290), later used as a school, the Schloss (c. 1200), and the Renaissance Town Hall (1538-85), in the Marktplatz.

Gross-sedlitz Baroque garden

On a hill above the Elbe at Gross-sedlitz, 16km/10mi southeast of Dresden, lies one of the most perfect Baroque gardens in Saxony. It was laid out in the French style between 1719 and 1726 for Count Wackerbarth as a pleasure garden attached to one of his palaces. After the estate was acquired by Augustus the Strong in 1723 it was given its present Baroque form by the best Dresden architects of the day (M. D. Pöppelmann, Z. Longuelune and J. C. Knöffel).

Stille Musik

Of particular beauty is the Baroque staircase with curving balustrades and groups of putti known as the "Stille Musik" ("Quiet Music"). It is now established that this was designed by Pöppelmann.

During the summer months there are frequent festivals and dance displays in this beautiful natural setting.

Dresden - Langer Gang The Langer Gang (by P. Buchner, 1586-91) in Dresden, well restored after the last war, is a long wing linking the Georgenbau of the palace with the Johanneum. Along its inner side is a long Tuscan-style arcade with 22 round-headed arches which leads to the Stallhof (Court Stables), the tilt-yard, the horse-trough and horse-pond.

Leipzig The city of Leipzig, long famed for its trade fairs, lies in the Saxon Lowland at the junction of the Weisse Elster and the Pleisse. Situated as it was on important trade routes, the town developed, after being granted the privilege of holding fairs, into a considerable commercial town, the leading city in Saxony after Dresden. It also became a center of art, culture and learning. Its importance as a center of the book trade is shown by its old-established publishing houses, its major libraries, including the German Library (Deutsche Bücherei) and the German Central Library for the Blind, its International Book Fairs and annual exhibitions of the finest books of the year, its College of Graphic and Book Art and its large printing and publishing houses.

Liberation Street The Strasse der Befreiung runs north from the Neustädter Markt in Dresden.

Leipzig - Madlerpassage Opposite the Naschmarket is the Mädlerpassage, one of the shopping arcades characteristic of Leipzig. All of them (Mädlerpassage, Königshofpassage, Messehofpassage) are linked with one another.

Dresden - New Town Dresden's "new town" on the right bank of the Elbe suffered heavy damage in 1945.

Leipzig - Old Town Hall The Markt in Leipzig, for many centuries the hub of the city's life, is dominated by the Old Town Hall, a Renaissance building erected by Burgomaster Hieronymus Lotter in 1556 but much altered in later centuries. The tower, with a Baroque crown, is placed asymmetrically over the main entrance. Above the entrance is a roofed balcony for public announcements and proclamations, where the town trumpeters, in traditional costume, emerge at weekends. The colonnades along the front were built in 1907, replacing the wooden shops and booths which formerly stood here.

Dresden - Palais Marcolini To the west of Dresden's old town, in the district of Friedrichstadt, a planned development initiated by Augustus the Strong in 1730, stands the Baroque Palais Marcolini, which dates from around that time. Much altered in the 19th and 20th centuries, it is now the District Hospital (not open to the public), but preserves some of the original interior decoration. Napoleon and Metternich met and negotiated in the Chinese Room in 1809. The east wing was occupied by Richard Wagner in 1847-49.

Dresden - Pilnitz Palaces The palaces and palace park of Pilnitz near Dresden (which can be reached by boat: Weisse Flotte, departing from the Terrassenufer) are among the finest palace complexes created during the reign of Augustus the Strong. On the banks of the Elbe stands the Wasserpalais (Water Palace), and on the opposite side of the pleasure garden (Lustgarten) is its exact counterpart, the Bergpalais (Hill Palace; by M. D. Pöppelmann and Z. Longuelune, 1722-24). Both palaces are in the clearly articulated style of Late Baroque, with a profusion of chinoiserie. The side wings (by C. T. Weinlig and Exner, 1788-91) and the New Palace (Neues Palais; by C. F. Schuricht, 1818-26) are still in Baroque style; in the Fliederhof and the Schlosswache (Guard-House) the neo-classical style takes over.

Craft Museum

In the Bergpalais is the Craft Museum (Museum für Kunsthandwerk), which is a section of Dresden's State Art Collections. Its collections include fine furniture, musical instruments, glass, pewter, Dutch and French faience and stoneware and textiles. Also of interest are the Weinling Room (c. 1800) and an exhibition on "Industrial Design in the 19th and 20th Centuries".

Dresden - Public Health Museum To the southeast of Dresden's old town is Lingnerplatz, in which (No. 2) is the monumental building (1928-30) occupied by the German Public Health Museum, an institution established to promote health education and healthy living. Among the exhibits is the famous "Glass Woman", first displayed in 1930.

Radebeul The main feature of interest in Radebeul, lying just northwest of Dresden in a beautiful setting is the Lössnitz landscape reserve.

Leipzig - Sachsenplatz North of the Markt in Leipzig is Sachsenplatz, laid out in 1969 on the site of buildings destroyed during the war. In the center of the square are ornamental fountains (1972) and a ceramic column with scenes from the history of the town (1972).

Schloss Moritzburg 14km/9mi northwest of Dresden, in a landscape reserve, is Schloss Moritzburg, an Electoral hunting lodge and pleasure palace in the ochre and white of Saxon Baroque. Here, on a low granite hill in a marshy depression in the Friedewald, Duke (later Elector) Moritz built in 1542-44 a modest hunting-box which developed into a large hunting lodge. Then, during the reign of Augustus the Strong, in 1723-36, Z. Longueline, M. D. Pöppelmann and J. C. Knöffel built the palace as we see it today. The old hunting lodge and its chapel (1661-71) were incorporated in the new structure. Celebrated sculptors like Balthasar Permoser, J. C. Kirchner and Benjamin Thomae carved the Baroque statues on the balustrades of the carriage ramp and the terrace. The decoration and furnishing of the interior (wallpaper, furniture, painting, etc.), still preserved almost complete and unaltered, were the work of the court painter Louis de Silvestre, the interior decorator Raymond Leplat and the wallpaper designer Pierre Mercier. Outstanding among the pictures are works by Lucas Cranach the Younger and A. Thiele and the "Man of Sorrows" by Permoser in the chapel.

Semper's Opera House The west side of the Theaterplatz in Dresden is dominated by the Opera House, the second opera house built by Gottfried Semper on this site (the first one having been burned down in 1869). Like Dresden's Picture Gallery, it is in the style of the Italian High Renaissance. From 1878 until the end of the Second World War it was Dresden's most magnificent theater; after wartime destruction it was restored between 1977 and 1985 very much in its original form.

Leipzig - St Thomas's Church Southwest of the Markt in Leipzig stands the Thomaskirche, home of the world-famed St Thomas's Choir. Originally built around 1212 as the church of an Augustinian house, it was much altered in later centuries. In the 15th C. it was given the form of a Late Gothic hall-church in the style of Upper Saxony. The west front dates from renovation work carried out between 1872 and 1889. Martin Luther preached in the church in 1539, and Johann Sebastian Bach was choirmaster from 1723 to 1750. His remains were brought here in 1950 from St John's Church which was destroyed during the Second World War.

Dresden - Theaterplatz Beyond the portico of the Picture Gallery in Zwinger lies Dresden's Theaterplatz, one of Germany's finest squares. In the center stands an equestrian statue (by Schilling, 1883) of King John, who made a name for himself as a student and translator of Dante.

Dresden - Transport Museum The old Stallgebäude (Stable Building) in Dresden's Neumarkt, now the Johanneum, also dates from the late 16th century, with alterations in the 18th and 19th centuries; the external staircase was added in 1729. From 1722 to 1856 it was a picture gallery, and since 1956 it has housed the Transport Museum (Verkehrsmuseum; railroads, urban transport, motor vehicles, shipping, air travel; special section on the history of the bicycle).

To the left of the main front is the Schöne Pforte ("Beautiful Doorway"; not restored), a jewel of Renaissance architecture (before 1555) which was originally the entrance to the palace chapel.

In front of the Johanneum stands the Peace Fountain (Friedensbrunnen), originally the Turks' Fountain (Türkenbrunnen).

Leipzig - University The dominant feature in Augustusplatz in Leipzig is now the 34-story high-rise block (1973; 142.5 m/468ft high) occupied by the University, with a panoramic cafe at 110 m/360ft. The University church which formerly stood here was demolished after suffering heavy destruction during the war.

Incorporated in the lecture theater block is the Schinkeltor (by K. F. Schinkel and Ernst Rietschel, 1836), the entrance to the old University, the Augusteum.

Zwinger Dresden's most celebrated tourist attraction is the Zwinger, a gem of courtly Baroque architecture in which overflowing creative power and clarity of form are most happily combined.

The best approach to the Zwinger is over the old moat (the Zwingergraben) to the rear of the Theater (Schauspielhaus; 1912-13) and through the Kronentor. On the front of this gateway, which is topped by the royal crown of Poland, the emblems of the Saxon/Polish dynasty of Augustus the Strong, who had the Zwinger built (by M. D. Pöppelmann, 1710-32) as a celebration of his power.

The Zwinger shows an extraordinary variety and magnificence of form: the majestic 32-bayed Long Gallery on the south side, the four symmetrically arranged pavilions on the east and west sides, the Wallpavillon in the center of the semicircular arched gallery at the west end - with its musical lightness the particular jewel of the Zwinger - and the Nymphenbad (Bath of the Nymphs) with its graceful fountains and mythological female figures (from the workshop of Balthasar Permoser, who collaborated with Pöppelmann on the construction of the Zwinger).

The Zwinger's collection of porcelain is the second largest in the world.

The Zwinger also has a large collection of scientific instruments and a carillon of 40 porcelain bells.