Germany Guide
Saxony
The Neustadt
The north-bank Neustadt is only on nodding terms with the historic Altstadt even though its origins were as Augustus the Strong's Baroque "new town", planned after a fire obliterated an earlier settlement in 1685. Augustus was a vain ruler: with great ceremony, three years after his death in 1733, his new district – first christened "New King's Town" – was inaugurated with a larger-than-life statue of the ruler as a Roman emperor – the Goldener Reiter statue on the north end of Augustusbrücke. A short way east, the city's oldest Renaissance building, the Jägerhof, houses regional folkcrafts and puppet displays of the Museum für Sächsische Volkskunst (Tues– Sun 10am–6pm; €3). Go west, however – take the riverside Elbe Meadows for views of the glorious Baroque city opposite – and you reach the Japanisches Palais. Augustus commissioned the quirky palace for his prize Meissen and Chinese porcelain, which explains the Chinoiserie flair to the roofline and courtyard. Broad boulevard Königstrasse spears northeast from here as an unbroken row of Baroque town houses, many with the original courtyards – perhaps the finest picture of handsome old Dresden in the city. It's more successful than Hauptstrasse north of the gilded equestrian statue after GDR urban planners tinkered with it to create a pedestrianized precinct. A little further is the Dreikönigskirche (tower March– Oct Tues– Sun 11am–4.30pm; €1.50), a rebuild of a church by Zwinger mastermind Pöppelmann. The high altar, shattered in the war, catches the eye, as does a walloping Renaissance Danse Macabre frieze.
The mood changes in the Äussere Neustadt north of Albertplatz. Its intimate nineteenth-century streetscape has emerged in recent decades as the beating heart of the city's alternative arts and nightlife scenes. The cappuccino classes are creeping in at the edges, but most of the multicultural area is defiantly unpolished – a place of funky galleries and independent boutiques, and the best bar scene south of Berlin. The unofficial icon at the heart of the area is the Kunsthofpassage (enter at Alaunstrasse 70 or Görlitzer Strasse 21), a web of interconnecting themed courtyards designed by local artists.