The Dresden Zwinger

The Zwinger is Baroque Dresden distilled - not a residence but festival architecture, built 1710-28 for Augustus the Strong by architect Poppelmann and sculptor Permoser as an orangery, gallery and tournament court where the Saxon court could celebrate itself. The result is a vast sculpted courtyard of pavilions, balustrades and fountains: the onion-crowned Crown Gate makes the emblem, the Nymphs' Bath hides its cascade of goddesses in a corner, and a carillon of Meissen porcelain bells chimes from its pavilion. The wings now hold three collections of the first rank - the Old Masters Picture Gallery with Raphael's Sistine Madonna and her famously bored cherubs, Augustus's obsessive porcelain collection, and the Mathematical-Physical Salon's centuries of clocks, globes and instruments. Meticulously rebuilt in the twentieth century, the courtyard is free to wander and does its best work in low evening light.

History

The name comes from the medieval term for the space between the outer and inner walls of a fortification; Dresden's first wall dates from the last quarter of the 12th century, the town is recorded as a civitas in 1216, and in 1427, during the Hussite Wars, an outer wall was added. The area between the two walls was called the Zwinger and used by the court as a garden, and when the Baroque palace was begun in the early 18th century the name passed to it, its south-western parts, including the Crown Gate, standing on the old ramparts (Wikipedia, Zwinger (Dresden)).

The main sights

• The Crown Gate - the onion-crowned Baroque emblem of the courtyard.
• The Sistine Madonna - Raphael's altarpiece and its two daydreaming cherubs.
• The Porcelain Collection - Augustus the Strong's Meissen obsession displayed.
• The Nymphs' Bath - the sculpted fountain grotto tucked behind the pavilions.

When to go

Year-round - the galleries are weatherproof and the courtyard blooms with orange trees in summer. Evening light on the sandstone is the photographer's window; gallery queues peak around midday in high season.

Practical notes

The courtyard costs nothing, but each museum takes its own ticket - the combination ticket pays off if you want two or more. Restoration scaffolding comes and goes on the pavilions. The Sistine Madonna draws a standing crowd; the rooms before and after it are nearly empty.

Nearby

The Frauenkirche, Bruhl's Terrace above the Elbe, the Semperoper and the Residenzschloss treasuries.

Key facts