Over the second weekend of Easter, Florian and I drove to Prague and stopped to visit Dresden on the way. Dresden is a charming little city along the Elbe river that spent 40 years in the Soviet bloc and is known for the controversial allied bombing right before the Germans surrendered. The rationale behind the bombing was fuzzy: defeat German morale, make a point to the Russians, take out the than 7th largest Germany city because of its industrial importance. Nonetheless, the historical center of Dresden was destroyed in 1945, but has now been rebuilt to its old glory. Curiously enough, Dresden's sister city (twin-town relationship) is Coventry (where Warwick University is) since it had suffered a similar fate in the hand of the Germans.
The Zwinger Palace (rebuilt in 1964) was formerly part of the Dresden fortress of which the outer wall is conserved. Zwinger means outer ward of a concentric castle - the cannons placed between the outer wall and the major wall. It is an enormous palace that was restored nicely. It's one of Dresden's main attractions.
Photos:
1 - 3 - the Dresden Zwinger
4 - Florian and I at the Zwinger
5 - The Dresden Frauenkirche (The Church of Our Lady)
6 - Views of the bridge over the Elbe
7 - View of Dresden historical city center
8 - Dresden at night...I risked my life on the road to get this pic
1 comment:
Maina - you are going every where I want to go! Did you know that in the rebuilding of the FrauenKirche they used burned bricks from the original. I thought it was so amazing that they left it alone for close to 50 years and just recently restored it. I plan to go when I finally get to Berlin! You go girl!
sms
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