Dresden is rich in Baroque and Rococo-architecture. The city thrived in the 18th century and was even called "Florence on the Elbe", after the rich Italian city and of course the river Elbe that flows through Dresden.
When you walk through the old town, you will encounter a lot of impressive buildings that give you an idea of how the city must've looked during that period of wealth and success. There are quite some buildings that have been fully or partly rebuilt in later years, but this does not take away from the historical insights you can get by visiting them. During the communist years of the DDR, a lot of buildings were torn down unfortunately, but from the 90s' on the city has spent a lot of time and money on restoring Dresden to its former Baroque glory, and they will continue to do so in years to come.
If you want to explore the old city, you can use the Dresden Old Town Walk on Routes.Tips.
Next to the old city, 'Altstadt' in German, there is also the 'Neustadt', or new city. To make things complicated, the word 'Neustadt ' is used for two different parts of town, one outside of the main city centre and one inside. We're talking about the one in the city centre, which is the part of town opposite 'Altstadt', on the other side of the Elbe. 'Neustadt' is the area where most of the museums are - and trust us, Dresden has some very interesting museums. We love the historical museum in the Japanese Palace, and don't forget the Erich Kastner museum if you're a fan of his books. Never heard of this writer? Although he wrote a lot of different things, he's most famous for his children's books like "Emil and the detective". German children grew up with his work and most Western European kids in the 60's, 70's and 80's were introduced to his work as well. He was born in Dresden and although he went on to live in Berlin, Munich, and Leipzig, it's his birthplace that now honours him with a museum.
This was a bit of info about Dresden, in our next blog post we'll tell you all about the exciting secrets that Dresden and the Saxony region harbour!
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