Germany Guide
Saxony
Brühlsche Terrasse
When Augustus the Strong created a Baroque city to mirror his power and glory, he permitted a cabinet minister, the Earl of Brühl, a private garden on top of the city's ramparts. Brühlsche Terrasse was acclaimed the "balcony of Europe", a riverside belvedere that elbows behind the Frauenkirche as a grand terrace of steps, balustrades and busts of German cultural heroes, providing views from 15m above river level – all in all the best promenade in town. Access is via steps at either end of the belvedere. Beneath those northeast of the Frauenkirche you'll find the entrance to the Museum Festung Dresden (daily: April– Oct 10am–5pm; Nov– March 10am–4pm; €4; www.schloesser-dresden.de), an atmospheric rummage through floodlit cannon rooms of what were advanced Renaissance fortifications. Above and to the left, the Albertinum pile is scheduled to reopen in mid-2009 after renovation as a palatial home for two city collections: the Galerie Neu Meister with nineteenth- and twentieth-century artwork – Caspar David Friedrich, French and German Impressionists, the Die Brücke movement and classic Modernists such as Otto Dix; and sculpture of the Skulpturensammlung which includes masterpieces by Balthasar Permoser, the sculptor behind the playful ornamentation of the Zwinger. (Times before renovation were Tues–Sun 10am–6pm.) The Staatliche Kunstsammlungen (Tues– Sun 10am–6pm) on the other side of the steps, meanwhile, remains raw from the damage of 1945 and serves as a foil for art and photography exhibitions.