Zwinger > Reviews > Still Zwinging!

Author's product rating:   

Advantages:	Fantastic
Disadvantages:	A bit expensive

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

The Zwinger in Dresden is another masterpiece of the Baroque Period. It resembles a mini Versailles and like the Frauenkirche had to be restored after the bombing raid on Dresden.

The fantastic fountain studded courtyard can be reached via a bridge across the moat. The Zwinger was created as a place to hold royal tournaments and festivals, but now holds five wonderful museums.

These include the Old Masters Gallery, including work by Raphael. The armoury museum, which holds some of the most spectacular, and dangerous looking weapons, of the Saxon Court. It also holds a Porcelain Museum, Zoological Museum, and a Mathematics and Physics Museum. These are all well worth a visit and you can buy a ticket which lets you get into them all. There are signs in English and German explaining the exhibits. The only disadvantage is that the combined ticket costs about 20 Euros.

However, it is free to wander around the courtyard and pavilions. One pavilion contains a carillion which consists of 40 porcelain Meissen bells and plays a tune every hour. Everyone stops to listen to this and it almost seems as if you have wandered into the 16th Century.

The Zwinger is a great place to end a tour of Dresden and is inspiring to see how much time and effort has been put into restoring such a masterpiece. Not only was the Zwinger destroyed by the Allies in 1945, but the floods of 2002/2003 reached the Zwinger causing almost £1,000,000 of additional damage. However, this was quickly restored and the Zwinger is a spectatcular place to view the collections of the Saxon Royal Family or to just spend a sunny afternoon walking through the courtyards.