After 70 years: Royal State Apartments reopened in Dresden's Royal Palace

Even more glamor in Dresden

Dresden will be enriched by another impressive attraction in September: the splendid State Apartments will open in the Royal Palace - after they were completely destroyed in World War II.

The Dresden Palace is already over 800 years old. But exactly 300 years ago, in September 1719, the Saxon Elector Augustus the Strong had the castle refurnished to the most magnificent. The occasion was a wedding: the Saxon ruler August had succeeded in 1697 to become king of Poland and Lithuania. Through a marriage between his son and the daughter of Holy Roman Emperor, the ambitious Saxon hoped to turn Saxony into a great European power.

The wedding celebrations in Dresden lasted a month. Everybody who had a reputation in Europe came to Dresden. The Dresden Zwinger was opened as a breathtaking festival site. Even today it is one of the most important sights in Dresden. As an extra wedding gift, August built for his son, also called August, an opera house. He knew that prince August shared his love of music with his Austrian wife Maria Josepha.,/p>

The new State Apartments should not be inferior to those in Versailles. The French court painter Louis de Silvestre designed the ceiling paintings. August himself sent his painters and illustrators to document and spread the glories of the wedding celebrations and new spaces, a look ahead to today's social media.,/p>

These drawings and prints, but also old photographs were the salvation, because on February 13, 1945, the Royal Palace (Residenzschloss) together with the entire historic city of Dresden was completely destroyed. Fortunately, the most valuable movable furniture (including the world's largest surviving collection of silver furniture), paintings and artworks had previously been outsourced. It was not until 1987 that the reconstruction of the castle began. 32 years and over 500 million Euros later, the magnificent building shines in new splendor.

The State Apartments enrich the huge collections that have been previously exhibited in the castle: the Historic and New Green Vaults, one of the largest treasuries in the world, the largest collection of magnificent 16th to 18th century garb, a unique collection Armory with lush decorated life-size wooden horses and knights at tournaments and more.

More information:

https://ruestkammer.skd.museum/ausstellungen/paraderaeume-im-dresdner-residenzschloss/

https://porzellansammlung.skd.museum/ausstellungen/porzellankabinett-im-turmzimmer/