Architectural Posters of Dresden

Dresden Architecture: Baroque Skyline and Operatic Tradition

The Frauenkirche, Zwinger and Semperoper define Dresden’s historic centre in very different ways. George Bähr’s Protestant central-plan church and Augustus the Strong’s courtly festival and collection complex represent eighteenth-century Baroque Dresden; Gottfried Semper’s opera house adds a major nineteenth-century building to the ensemble. These posters present not only their façades but, in the case of the Frauenkirche, plans and a section – revealing the spatial ideas behind the famous city skyline.

AP 539 and AP 006 · Dresden Frauenkirche

Dresden’s city council resolved to replace the Frauenkirche in 1722 and commissioned master carpenter George Bähr. Built from 1726 to 1743, the new Protestant church has an approximately square central plan with a chancel apse facing east. Its dome, constructed entirely from sandstone and known as the “Stone Bell”, rises directly from the compact body and is crowned by an open lantern. AP 539 and the smaller edition AP 006 concentrate on the richly articulated exterior: tall arched windows, curving gables and the mighty dome form a composition of increasing vertical emphasis.

Following the air raids of February 1945, the burnt-out church collapsed. Its ruins remained a memorial for decades. The reconstruction begun in 1993 incorporated recovered historic stones and restored Bähr’s architectural form; the Frauenkirche was reconsecrated on 30 October 2005. The visible combination of old and new sandstone has since made the history of destruction and recovery legible in the masonry itself.

AP 129 · George Bähr’s Frauenkirche in Elevation, Plan and Section

AP 129 supplements the representative elevation with four plan drawings and a section through the building. Bähr’s structural and liturgical solution becomes clear: galleries surround the central preaching space, while eight internal piers support the stone dome. The section reveals the double-shell construction, with an inner dome above the church interior and the soaring outer Stone Bell. The sheet therefore connects the sculptural effect of the exterior with the organisation of space, sightlines and load-bearing structure.

AP 332 · The Wallpavillon of the Dresden Zwinger

In 1709, Augustus the Strong initially commissioned Matthäus Daniel Pöppelmann to design an orangery; the project developed into the Zwinger, a court festival ground and later a museum complex. Its architecture and sculptural programme, shaped by Balthasar Permoser, form a masterpiece of Dresden’s late Baroque. AP 332 isolates the Wallpavillon, built in 1716–1719. Large arched openings are overlaid by columns, herms, figures and animated pediments; Hercules carries the globe above the central projection. The drawing shows how architecture and sculpture merge almost without a boundary. The Zwinger opened for the crown prince’s wedding festivities in 1719; by 1728 its buildings were complete and housed the electoral collections.

AP 342 and AP 221 · The Semperoper

Gottfried Semper’s first Royal Court Theatre was built in 1838–1841, combining late Neoclassical order with Renaissance forms. After its destruction by fire in 1869, a second opera house was erected in 1871–1878 to Semper’s designs under the supervision of his son Manfred. AP 342 and AP 221 show its main façade in two formats. The semicircular auditorium opens towards Theaterplatz through tiers of arcades; rustication, columns, sculpture and the crowning quadriga give the cultural building a festive yet clearly ordered appearance.

The Semperoper has been the setting for significant musical history, including the world premieres of Richard Wagner’s “The Flying Dutchman” and “Tannhäuser”, and Richard Strauss’s “Salome”, “Elektra” and “Der Rosenkavalier”. Severely damaged in 1945, the building underwent a reconstruction begun in 1977 under chief architect Wolfgang Hänsch. It reopened on 13 February 1985 with Carl Maria von Weber’s “Der Freischütz”.