Dresden...evolving!

There are few places in central Europe that pleasantly surprise visitors as much as Dresden does, capital of Saxony and third largest city in former East Germany at half a million inhabitants. More than 2 decades since the Fall of Communism, Dresden has become an East German success story in urban renewal, innovation and economic growth. Recent history, however, has not always been kind to the Saxon capital, with almost the entire historic inner city devastated by the infamous air raids of February 13th, 1945, and more recently, the reconstructed downtown almost entirely flooded by the "millenium floods" of the Elbe river in August, 2002. Since then, however, the city has defied all adversity and successfully reinvented itself, charmingly restored its historic core and become among the highlights of any visit to Eastern Germany and all of Central Europe. Surprisingly underrated and underpublicized as an international tourist destination, Dresden attracts but a moderate mostly local German crowd of visitors and thus remains a well-kept secret among travellers from abroad.

Approaching central Dresden from the opposite side of the Elbe river, our arrival could not be more scenic, with the so-called "Canaletto" view of the Dresden skyline opening up before us, featuring the towers of the Catholic Court Cathedral, the residence of the WETTIN dynasty, the splendid, recently completed OUR LADY's Church, the city's most important protestant cathedral, as well as the glass cupula of the ALBERTINUM museum complex, lovingly dubbed the "Lemon Squeezer". As we cross the Elbe bridge towards the historic inner city, we arrive at THEATERPLATZ with an overwhelming array of gorgeous, baroque-style buildings surrounding the square including the SEMPER opera house, the representative ZWINGER palace, which nowadays houses the Old Masters' Gallery and the Meissen Porcelain Collection, as well as the Catholic Cathedral. It is surprising to see a Catholic Church in an otherwise firmly protestant city, but AUGUSTUS THE STRONG, among the most noteable of the WETTIN Kings of Saxony, also became King of Poland during the peak of his reign, thus forcing him to convert to Catholicism and to construct a Catholic Cathedral in Dresden.

As we stroll through the historic core of Dresden, we leave behind Theaterplatz and pass through the vast "Residenz" of the Wettin Kings, approaching the building from behind. Here we find the city's most outstanding museum, the Historic and New Green Vault, de facto the Treasury of the Wettin Dynasty. Priceless and ornate pieces of jewelry, elaborate sculptures and further art treasures of the Wettins may be admired here on either a guided or an audio tour of the premises. The New Green Vault requires no prior reservation, whereas the Historic Green Vault may be booked months in advance. We then leave the Residenz towards the front side, turn right to continue past the unique and beautiful "PARADE OF PRINCES", a wall decorated with 24000 Meissen Porcelain tiles showing all the rulers of the Wettin Dynasty, including Augustus the Strong in the 17th century almost in the middle of the wall and on horseback. Walking past the Hilton Dresden Hotel, we arrive at Neumarkt Square and pause in front ot the statue of protestant reformer Martin Luther to admire the most important protestant church in Christianity, the recently rebuilt Our Lady's Church.

Seriously damaged during the February 1945 air raid, the church then at first remained standing, until a huge fire broke out and heated up the church interior for the huge cupula to collapse the following day. Since then, the destroyed church had remained a ruin and memorial site to the horrors of war, until reconstruction got under way as early as the 1990s and took off in earnest in 2000 to be completed by 2005. The church's reconstruction was carried out using state-of-the-art computer technology employed by NASA to determine where precisely old stones from the rubble would fit into the Church structure, thus allowing for all former stones to be used in the construction. Since ELBE sandstone quickly oxidates into a dark almost black color, it is easy for now to spot which stones in Our Lady's Church are original and which are new. In several years, however, most of the Church will turn into a darker color as a result of the oxidation process. Standing by the Luther Statue at Neumarkt Square we are overwhelmed by the square's recent reconstruction, whereby almost all buildings have been restored to their former baroque splendor lending architectural unity to the entire area surrounding the Frauenkirche.

Yet modern Dresden equally beguiles with incredible reconstruction efforts, ranging from daring innovative modern architecture along the PRAGER STRASSE pedestrian zone to the recently completed vast ALTMARKT and the brand-new even larger mega-mall of the ALTMARKTGALLERIE shopping complex. By now boasting the highest retail capacity per square meter and inhabitant ratio, Dresden has not only advanced economically to becoming the Saxon Silicone Valley with its focus on new technologies but has also been poised to turn into a retail therapy paradise for locals and visitors alike. And the list of surprises goes on, from impressive GRUENDERZEIT villas in the city's outskirts, to Volkswagen's Transparent Manufactury, and the quaint ELBE meadows with its castles, attesting to the wealth that may be built upon mouthwash and toothpaste. Today's Dresden is amazing - and still evolving to become even better.