Wednesday, October 10, 2012
We spent the morning walking around this city, so destroyed
by one horrific night of Allied firebombing, so oppressed in the postwar period
of Soviet domination. From the enormous
Opera House, to the magnificent grounds of the Zwinger Palace compound,
the Hofkirche and, of course, back
to the Frauenkirche, the care with which this city has rebuilt from rubble is
inspiring. Here, as in many of the
places we saw in Warsaw and in Wroclaw, photographs of the wartime destruction
are often displayed near restored buildings, so it’s possible to see the extent
of both the devastation and the restoration.
While the photos and the bricks and mortar don’t show are the
determination and resolve of the populations affected.
There is plenty of food for thought, inspiration, and admiration
here. At the Frauenkirche, in
particular, the light, airy, pastel interior, under the massive dome, doesn’t
distract completely from the simple cross on the altar. Made from two fire-blackened nails discovered
in the rubble of the cathedral in Coventry, England (Dresden’s sister city),
which was bombed as thoroughly as Dresden during the war.
In addition, the twisted and burned cross
that had originally topped the dome stands now inside the church, at the
precise spot where it had been unearthed from the rubble, just in 1993. A copy of this cross now tops the dome, and
was a gift from England on the occasion of the 55th anniversary of
the bombing. It was built by a coppersmith whose father took part in the bombing of the church. Talk about a spirit of
reconciliation!
Like the Frauenkirche, many of the buildings in the city used
much of their original construction material in the restoration. For that reason, their exteriors appear in a
variety of sandstone shades. The older
stones have oxidized and darkened, while the newer material is still light in
color. Even the walls tell stories here!
This afternoon, we visited the Historic Green Vault, which
houses the treasures of the Saxon royals.
It’s hard to know what to say about such glorious excess – beautiful,
but…
Later, we headed north across the Elbe for a walk around the
New City, which, because it was largely spared the war’s bombs, actually predates
the Old Town! We enjoyed views of the
Old Town from the far side of the river and as we walked across the Augustus
Bridge.
No comments:
Post a Comment