Sights Overview

Dresden

Dresden, capital of the Germany state of Saxony, sits in baroque splendor on a wide sweep of the Elbe River, and its proponents are working with German thoroughness to recapture the city's old reputation as the "Florence on the River Elbe." Its yellow and pale-green facades are enormously appealing, and their mere presence is even more overwhelming when you compare what you see today with photographs of Dresden from February 1945, after an Allied bombing raid destroyed the city overnight. Dresden was the capital of Saxony as early as the 15th century, although most of its architectural masterpieces date from the 18th century and the reigns of Augustus the Strong and his son, Frederick Augustus II.

Though some parts of the city center still look as if they're stuck halfway between demolition and construction, the present city is an enormous tribute to Dresdeners' skills and dedication. The resemblance of today's riverside to Dresden cityscapes painted by Canaletto in the mid-1700s is remarkable. Unfortunately, the war-inflicted gaps in the urban landscape in other parts of the city are too big to be closed anytime soon.

Leipzig

World War II left little of old Leipzig intact. Restoration conveys touches of the city's Renaissance character and art-nouveau flair, although some of the newer buildings (notably the university's skyscraper tower) distort the perspective and proportions of the old city.

Meissen

This romantic city on the Elbe River is known the world over for its porcelain, bearing the trademark crossed blue swords. The first European porcelain was made in this area in 1708, and in 1710 the Royal Porcelain Workshop was established in Meissen, close to the local raw materials.

The story of how porcelain came to be produced in Meissen reads like a German fairy tale: The Saxon elector Augustus the Strong, who ruled from 1694 to 1733, urged his court alchemists to find the secret of making gold, something he badly needed to refill a state treasury depleted by his extravagant lifestyle. The alchemists failed to produce gold, but one of them, Johann Friedrich Böttger, discovered a method for making something almost as precious: fine hard-paste porcelain. Already a rapacious collector of Oriental porcelains, Prince August put Böttger and a team of craftsmen up in a hilltop castle -- Albrechtsburg -- and set them to work.

Sächsische Schweiz

True mountain climbers may smile at the name of the Sächsische Schweiz (Saxon Switzerland), the mountainous region southeast of Dresden. The highest summit is a mere 182 feet, but the scenery in this region, a mixture of cliffs, gorges, and small canyons, certainly has drama. The stone formations are at least 100 million years old and are leftovers from the Elbe River's sandstone deposits. In time, the soft stone was sculpted by wind and water into grim but fantastic looking tall columns of stone.

Görlitz

Quiet, narrow cobblestone alleys and late-medieval and Renaissance structures make Görlitz one of the most charming finds in eastern Germany. Once a major commercial hub between Dresden and Wroclaw, Germany's easternmost city fell into small-town oblivion after World War II, which left the city almost completely intact.

Chemnitz

On older maps Chemnitz may appear as Karl-Marx-Stadt, an appellation imposed on the city in 1953 to remind the East German working community of the man who really started it all. In 1990 the inhabitants, free to express a choice, overwhelmingly voted to restore the original name. Badly damaged during World War II, Chemnitz has been revived as a center of industry and culture.