Tours · Dresden · landmark

Zwinger

A jewel of Baroque architecture that was gutted to a burnt shell in the 1945 firestorm and painstakingly rebuilt from the rubble. Its galleries once held treasures that vanished into a Soviet railway tunnel before returning a decade later.

About this place

Designed by Matthaeus Daniel Poeppelmann with sculptures by Balthasar Permoser and built between 1710 and 1728 for Augustus the Strong, the Zwinger began life as an orangery and a stage for royal festivities. In 1847 Gottfried Semper added the gallery wing that closes off the courtyard toward Theaterplatz and houses the celebrated Old Masters Picture Gallery. On the nights of 13 to 15 February 1945 the Allied firestorm tore through the complex, collapsing roofs and leaving the pavilions as scorched skeletons. The paintings had already been carried to safety, and among them Raphael's Sistine Madonna would spend ten years in Moscow before its return. Rebuilding began almost at once under the Soviet military administration and continued for nearly two decades, restoring the Zwinger to the serene arcades you see today.

Key facts

1945 year — The firestorm of 13 to 15 February gutted the Baroque complex
1955 year — Raphael's Sistine Madonna returned after a decade in Soviet hands
18 years — The full reconstruction stretched from 1945 to 1963

📍 Theaterplatz 1, 01067, Dresden

Hear it on a guided audio walk

Dresden 1933-1945: Dictatorship, Firestorm, Remembrance A sober walk through the Altstadt tracing Nazi tyranny, the persecution of Dresden's Jews, and the catastrophic 1945 firestorm.