Facts about Zwinger

It is located close to other famous monuments, including Dresden Castle-Residenzschloss, the residence of the Dukes of Saxony, a building with an 800-year, and the Semperoper-the Saxon State Opera House.

It was built on an area located between the outer and inner defensive walls of Dresden (the so-called “outer circle”). Such spaces were customarily called “Zwinger” and were used by the Dresden court for garden purposes (Zwingergarten) near the castle.

Since the palace garden complex was built in such an area, it took its name from it.

Augustus II the Strong was fascinated by King Louis XIV of France and his architectural doings. Upon his return from a trip to France, when he became king of Poland, he wanted to create palaces in Dresden and Warsaw on the scale of Versailles.

The king’s court architect was Matthäus Daniel Pöppelmann, who designed both the Zwinger in Dresden and the Saxon Palace in Warsaw.

The pretext was the wedding of Prince Elector Frederick Augustus II (Augustus III of Poland) to the daughter of the Habsburg Emperor, Archduchess Maria Joseph. At that time, the Zwinger already had buildings with unfinished interiors, and the garden pavilions and their arcaded galleries provided a striking backdrop for the ceremony.

The interiors of the buildings were not finished until 728, and by then they could already serve as exhibition galleries and library rooms.

It featured richly decorated pavilions, emporiums with balustrades, statues and vases, and arcaded galleries. The original concept of Augustus II was that the Zwinger was to be the courtyard of the new castle, which included the area between it and the Elbe River, so it was not built up on the riverside, only enclosed by a makeshift wall.

With the death of Augustus II, the construction of a new castle was abandoned and the Zwinger lost some of its importance.

The building borders the Zwinger from the northeast towards the Elbe River. The gallery was built between 1847 and 1854 by architect Gottfried Semper. The Semper Gallery is a three-story building 127.35 meters long and 23.77 meters high, built in the Italian Renaissance style.

Its exterior façade features 120 sandstone sculptures, including 12 statues, 16 bas-reliefs, 20 medallions, and 72 figures hanging over windows and arches. More than 160 figures from different eras can be seen there, from Zeus to Moses and Michelangelo to Goethe.

At the time of its construction, the Semper Gallery was considered “the most magnificent and ornate museum building of recent times.”

The origins of the collection are connected with the person of Prince Augustus Wettin, who often bought works of art and craftsmanship, but his attention was mainly focused on applied art and armaments. This changed during the reigns of Augustus II the Strong and his son, Augustus III of Poland, who, with large financial resources and connections at European courts, purchased paintings by European masters on a large scale. Their collections were exhibited in various buildings, eventually ending up on permanent display in Zwinger, the Semper Gallery.

During World War II, the paintings were hidden outside the Sempergalerie, where they survived Allied air raids. Later they were taken to the Soviet Union. In the 1950s, most of the collection was returned, although several hundred works are still missing.

The painting was commissioned by the monks of the Benedictine monastery of San Sisto in Piacenza as part of an altar set. In the 1750s Augustus III of Poland bought it and in 1754 the painting was placed in the Dresden Gallery.

It is represented by such masters as Giorgione, Titan, Corregio, Mantegna, Botticelli, and Parmigianino. The are also works by Dutch and Flemish painters from the 17th century - many works by Rembrandt and his pupils. There are many works of German and Old Dutch painting (van Eyck, Dürer, Cranach, and Holbein), as well as Spanish and French from the 17th century.

There is a rich collection of historical porcelain wares (the largest in Europe), both German from Meissen, as well as Chinese, Japanese or Korean. There is a collection of ancient mathematical, physical, astronomical, geodetic, and meteorological instruments, as well as an armory and an orangery, which contains many exotic plant species imported by Augustus II the Strong.

In the Zwinger, the armory (Rüstkammer) houses the insignia of Augustus II the Strong-his private regalia made in 1697 by goldsmith Johann Friedrich Klemm. The complex also contains numerous Polish and Saxon symbols related to Augustus II the Strong.

The complex contains six stored pavilions (Clock, German, Porcelain, Embankment, French, Mathematical, and Physical), connected by one-story galleries. The pavilions are situated around a large rectangular courtyard.

The complex is accessed by an entrance gate built in 1714-1718, called Kronentor. It is modeled on works of the late Italian Baroque. It is decorated with sculptures alluding to the myth of Hercules. The gate’s finial features the coat of arms of the Republic and four eagles supporting the Polish royal crown.

In 2012-2016, the Kronentor underwent a restoration at €650.000.

Its reconstruction began later that year and lasted until 1963.