Frauenkirche
The Frauenkirche is a Protestant church on Dresden's Neumarkt, built between 1726 and 1743 to George Bähr's design and rebuilt between 1993 and 2005.
CEphoto, Uwe Aranas Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SA 3.0
What it is
It stands in Dresden's Old Town. A non-profit foundation, the Stiftung Frauenkirche Dresden, runs it. The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Saxony, the Free State of Saxony and the city of Dresden set it up in 1994.
History
An older Frauenkirche, a church of Our Lady, dates from the 11th century; the Baroque church replaced it. In 1722 Dresden's council decided on a new church. It commissioned the council carpenter George Bähr (1666 to 1738), who designed a domed central building. Building ran from 1726 to 1743.
In February 1945, during the air raids on Dresden, the church burned out and then collapsed. Two parts of the ruin still stood in the rubble: the choir area with the altar, and a stair tower. The ruins then stayed in the city centre as a memorial for almost fifty years.
The rebuilding ran from 1993, when the rubble was cleared, to 2005. The first stone was set on 27 May 1994. Donations from Germany and abroad helped pay for it. The new tower cross is a gift from Britain. The church was consecrated on 30 October 2005.
The dome
The dome is built entirely of sandstone. It is known as the “Stone Bell” (Steinerne Glocke). The lantern above it holds a viewing platform 67 metres up. Visitors reach it by a spiral ramp that circles the dome two and a half times, and then by stairs.
The stones
Stones and parts were recovered from the rubble and inventoried before they were reused. Old stones from the ruin are built in among new ones, and old and new stone differ in colour. The sandstone for both Bähr's church and the rebuilt one came from the Posta quarries in the Elbe Sandstone Mountains.