Frauenkirche

A promise

Citizens built it to show they would stay Protestant

The Baroque church was built between 1726 and 1743 as a sign of the will of the citizens of Dresden to remain Protestant after their ruler had converted to Catholicism. It was designed by the city architect George Bähr, who did not live to see its completion.

The Stone Bell

Cannonballs bounced off its stone dome in 1760

The church's most distinctive feature was its high dome, 67 metres high, called die Steinerne Glocke, the Stone Bell. The 12,000-ton sandstone dome rested on eight slender supports. Witnesses in 1760 said the dome had been hit by more than 100 cannonballs fired by the Prussian army, and the projectiles bounced off.

12,000tons of sandstone in the dome, on eight slender supports

Bach

Bach played the new organ in 1736

In 1736 the famed organ maker Gottfried Silbermann built a three-manual, 43-stop organ for the church. It was dedicated on 25 November, and Johann Sebastian Bach gave a recital on it on 1 December.

A ruin

After the 1945 bombing the ruin stood for nearly half a century

The church was destroyed during the Allied firebombing of Dresden at the end of World War II. The remaining ruins were left for nearly half a century as a war memorial. After German reunification it was decided to rebuild, starting in 1994, and it was reconsecrated on 30 October 2005.

Old stones

About 3,800 of the original stones went back into the walls

Of the millions of stones used in the rebuilding, more than 8,500 original stones were salvaged and about 3,800 reused. The new gilded cross on the dome was forged in London and funded by the British people and the House of Windsor. It now also serves as a symbol of reconciliation between former warring enemies.