Stiftung Frauenkirche Dresden

Description

In the historic centre of the Inneren Altstadt, Museum Festung Dresden presents the preserved casemates and fortifications at the city's Elbe-facing terminus. The museum opened in 1992 and, after a comprehensive redesign, reopened in 2019 as Festung Xperience with the exhibition Feste, Dramen und Katastrophen.

The rooms lie beneath the Brühlsche Terrasse; today's access is via the terrace in front of the Hochschule für Bildende Künste Dresden and an elevator down. The casemates occupy a section of the northern city wall and, in their dark, vaulted chambers, convey an underground impression, although they sit two storeys above the surrounding ground level. Immediately adjacent are the Kunsthalle im Lipsius-Bau, the Galerie Neue Meister and the Skulpturensammlung der Staatlichen Kunstsammlungen Dresden.

Construction of the fortifications began in 1546 at the behest of Fürst Moritz von Sachsen; during the 1550s the Ziegeltor and the Kleine Bastion were built, features that still define the profile of the Brühlsche Terrasse. At the end of the 16th century the defensive works were extended and the Jungfernbastei was created, whose casemates were used to store weapons and billet troops. A powder magazine exploded in 1747 and destroyed the first Belvedere; the area lost military significance and was subsequently redesigned for gardens and representative buildings, with many casemates filled in. In the 20th century parts of the complex served as an air-raid shelter and later as a municipal cold store. From the 1960s onwards conservation work uncovered large sections; after reunification the efforts intensified, and the museum was established on the initiative of a local association.

The visitor programme brings the defensive architecture to life: the more than 450-year-old Ziegeltor is the last preserved city gate of Dresden and retains the passageway, pedestrian gates, old guardrooms, an iron door fitting and the bridge over the former city moat, which is considered the oldest stone bridge in the city. On view are gun courts, spiral staircases, defensive walkways, loopholes and three vaulted passages—40 metres long and eight metres wide—that served as arms stores. In the Kleine Bastion a courtyard opens whose entrance area displays Elbe flood marks from three centuries. Also to be seen are a 16th-century foundry workshop and the research laboratories in which European hard-paste porcelain production was developed in the early 18th century. The Moritzmonument, whose original once stood in the fortress, was replaced by a copy in 2000; the original was recovered and conserved after the 2013 flood and has been on display in the Residenzschloss since 2017.