The charred appearance is typical of many Dresden buildings
The Hofkirche, part of Dresden's baroque architecture
Jill feeding JR in front of the beautifully rebuilt Frauenkirche
We stopped for one day in Dresden on our way back from Munich. We mainly chose it because it was about half way back. I wasn't too sure about it, since the extent of my knowledge of Dresden was that the Allies basically firebombed it to rubble towards the end of the Second World War. But, we lucked out; it's actually a beautiful city now. We stayed right in the Altstadt where it looks like they've done the most rebuilding.
Dresden was known as the "Florence on the Elbe" before WWII, due to all the baroque architecture. And it really is striking. That style is not what I would have expected for the capital of Saxony. The other thing that gets your attention is the charred buildings. I don't know if that's a deliberate choice to leave the exteriors with the charred appearance, but it certainly reminds you of the terrible fate Dresden suffered. The communists used the fire-bombing as anti-Western propaganda for years, claiming up to 250,000 deaths of residents and refugees fleeing from the Red Army's eastern approach. The official investigation completed by the city of Dresden in 2008 cited approximately 25,000 deaths. It's still a lot of course.
The Frauenkirche is one of the most beautiful of the rebuilt structures. Its reconstruction was completed in 2005, with help from many donors, including supporters of Coventry Cathedral, which was destroyed in German air raids. The church is an impressive site, and the way the architecture includes stones from the destroyed building is both handsome and meaningful. If you're interested you can read the wikipedia article here. I highly recommend Dresden. We will stop to see more if we travel that way again.
