Dresden Elbe Valley

Dresden Elbe Valley
Frauenkirche
The Dresden Elbe Valley spreads some 20 kilometres through the city of Dresden. This cultural landscape gained its worth due to both its urban area and part of the natural river banks and slopes.

Famous parts of the Elbe Valley are Pillnitz with its castle and old village as well as the village of Loschwitz, technical building like the bridge Blue Wonder, the Standseilbahn Dresden or the Schwebebahn Dresden and the historic center with the famous buildings of Brühl's Terrace, Semperoper and Katholische Hofkirche (Roman Catholic Church of the former court).

Year Decision Comments
2007Reinforced MonitoringBridge
2006In DangerNegative visual impact of construction project of the “Waldschlösschen-Bridge”
2004 Inscribed Reasons for inscription

Reviews

Adrian Lakomy (Slovakia):
I visited this site on beautiful April's Saturday. The town center is beautiful and what is the best there are not so many tourists as in other sites (e.g. Prague). The town centre contains more impressive places as Zwinger, Temper oper and Schloss (castle). In Schloss there is a nice exhibition of jewels. Regarding the bridge which causes the "WH in danger" - at first sight the location of bridge should not cause such an "disaster". But the resolution is not on me. To stay there one more day would be better, but definitely this is a worth place to see.
 
():
In fall 2006 I made a biketrip along the Elberiver.
The riverbank between Schloss Pillnitz and Dresden was culturally very interesting. Most impressive were the castles, das Blaue Wunder, and the historic core of Dresden. It would be a pitty to built a new bridge right into it.
 
Marcel (Germany):
I spent two days in Dresden in August 2005, but unfortunately it rained on both days. Well, this fact didn't stop me from visiting various sights in the Historic Centre of Dresden. During WWII nearly all of Dresden was destroyed and when I was there the Frauenkirche "Our Lady's Church" was completely restaurated alreay, but we weren't allowed to enter the interior. So we went to the "Unterkirche" ("underchurch"), some kind of a cellar room where we could listen a lady who told us about the churches history. My boyfriend and me were allowed to visit some kind of hidden grottoes which usually are closed for tourists, but the young girl who held the speech was so kind to let us in there to take some photos. ;-) Besides this church you also should visit the Zwinger, a gallery/museum, and Yenidze, a very interesting building in Turkish/Oriental style built in 1906.
Date posted: March 2006
Zack Culvert (USA):
This scene of the 150 meter tile work alone is worth the trip.
Date posted: March 2006
Ian Cade (England):
I visited the historic centre of Dresden which is the focus of this entry on a fantastic August day. The main building of interest for me was the Frauenkirche which has just been restored after being mostly destroyed in the bombing raids of WWII. I was impressed to see that the original parts of the cathedral were in a completely different colour stone to the new parts, so you could see what is restored and what is more recent addition.
The rest of the centre is very impressive with huge Baroque buildings lining every street many containing excellent galleries museums, or other cultural centres. The Zwinger was a great place to stroll around. I even found the time to treat myself to a Weissebier on the Brulsche Terrase, which was an excellent way to while away time and do some people watching. On the other side of the river is the Neustadt, which has a nice vibe about it and the famous remarkably gleaming Goldreiter statue.
I did not even get a chance to go on a river steamer cruise up to Pillnitz Palace, visit Swiss Saxony or visit any of the cultural treasures (many close on Mondays!). So I would suggest this is a great place to spend a full two days.
I must admit I was pretty ignorant to Dresden before it became a WHS, the only thing I really knew about it was the extensive allied bombing campaign. I had a spare day whilst visiting some friends in Prague and after reading Paul’s glowing endorsement below I thought I could have a nice day trip there. So I was delighted when I got there to see such a charming and beautiful city. I wish I had spent longer!
It is about 2h 45m from Prague on a nice train line that follows the Vltava/ Elbe most of the way or it is about a 2h journey by train south from Berlin.
Date posted: September 2005
Paul Tanner (UK):
In English the title of this site gives the impression that it is the Elbe which is the main site, limited to that part which is at Dresden! In fact it includes the whole of the historic centre of Dresden together with some of the delights of the “classical” Elbe river trip – as far as the magnificent Palace of Pillnitz 15kms upstream from the city centre. (The river trip then continues along a most attractive part of the Elbe in “Swiss Saxony” as far as Bad Schandau and is neither part of this WHS nor on Germany’s Tentative list)

The city of Dresden alone fully justifies a WHS inscription – one of the great cities of Europe/The World for architecture, fine art and music. The rest is a wonderful icing on the cake. In Stockholm, Berlin and Paris palaces on the outskirts all get separate nominations – here you get them all for the price of 1 with a superb excursion on an old paddle steamer (photo) to get between them! Designed as a Capital City and with public buildings appropriate to that status Dresden actually has a population of only around half a million (smaller than eg Hannover, Bremen or Dortmund). Even the drab hand of the GDR with its normal signature blocks of “soviet” flats doesn’t impinge on the historic centre. The destruction of wartime has largely been erased (at least to the casual eye). Berlin lies less than 200kms away by road but is a world away in temperament and style.

Actually the idea of including the river as part of the site is a successful one. The river is an essential part of the city – you can’t spend time looking at it from the Terrasse without wanting to travel along it. We fitted in both an opera (way cheaper than in UK!) and a river trip in our 2 days but there are so many different kinds of visits you could pay to this fine city that anyone should find plenty to do – even a couple of “city cynics” like ourselves!
Date posted: July 2005


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