Florence on the Elbe
Florence on the Elbe (also Florence of the North or Florence on the Elbe ) nationalized off the early 19th century as a nickname for the city of Dresden a. The title is originally meant to honor Dresden's art collections and its architecture, but is now also used in connection with other similarities and points of contact between the Saxon and Tuscan capital.
Parallels directly contributing to the naming
Art collections
The naturalization of the term Florence on the Elbe is initially attributed to Johann Gottfried Herder as the German Florence , who in 1802 expressed "Art Collections in Dresden" in the Adrastea , and what later moved to Florence on the Elbe :
“But above all it is the art and antiquity collections that he donated at considerable expense, trophies of his government. What one Friedrich August started at the beginning of the century, another Friedrich August completed at the end of it. Through them, Dresden has become a German Florence in terms of art treasures. "
In addition to the size and quality of the Dresden collections, the Italian masters are one of the focal points of their collections.
architecture
Several buildings that shape the cityscape , especially those of the Dresden Baroque , to which Dresden owes its architectural fame and which is called "music turned into stone" in a catchphrase , were created under noteworthy Italian and especially Florentine influence. Dresden's architecture of the early 19th century was also based on these models.
The most important Dresden sculptor in the baroque period, Balthasar Permoser , worked in Florence immediately before his time in Dresden, until 1689, where he studied the works of Michelangelo and Pietro Bernini and their students. As the builder of the Catholic Court Church , Gaetano Chiaveri and the Italian construction workers were settled on the site of today's theater square in 1737 , which was already called the Italian village at that time . (The name of the Italian village reminds of this settlement .)
| Stone domes |
|
|
|---|---|---|
| Florence Cathedral | Frauenkirche in Dresden | |
| Year of dome completion Dome diameter at the base of the dome height |
1436 45 meters 31 meters |
1743 (reconstructed until 2005) 26 meters 22 meters |
The stone church dome that characterizes the silhouette of both cities is perceived as a particularly striking parallel .
The Frauenkirche was initially the only building north of the Alps that had a large stone dome (reminiscent of the Florence Cathedral ). Today it is again (destroyed in 1945, rebuilt "archaeologically reconstructed" until 2005) one of the most important such domed structures in this region.
In 1838 Gustav Hörnig built the Dresden Logenhaus ( Ostra-Allee 15) in the shape of a Florentine palace. Starting with this building and the one year later the new buildings of the Villa Rosa by the architect Gottfried Semper and the Villa von Seebach by the architect Hermann Nicolai , the entire design language of the Italian Renaissance will be used in new buildings in Dresden over the next few decades . Since at the same time there was considerable growth in the city, and the architects of this Semper Nicolai School followed, these forms shaped an entire cityscape.
Stylistic acquisitions from Florence can be proven several times: For example, when building the new Palais Kaskel-Oppenheim ( Bürgerwiese 5–7), Gottfried Semper used the Florentine Palazzo Pandolfini as the basis in 1845–1848 . Logenhaus, Villa Rosa, Villa von Seebach and Oppenheimpalais were destroyed during the air raids on Dresden in February 1945 and their ruins were not rebuilt after 1945.
Uffizi Gallery (built 1559–1581)
Semper Gallery (built 1847–1855)
Semper designed the gallery building ( " Sempergalerie " ) built on Dresden's Theaterplatz in the middle of the 19th century and closing the Zwinger towards the north, based on the model of the Florentine Uffizi .
Since the consecration in 2005 (with the rebuilding of the Frauenkirche) Dresden's historic old town silhouette has been almost completely restored.
geography
Landscape analogies also contributed to the association of “Florence on the Elbe”, such as the location on the middle course of a large river and in a basin surrounded by rolling hills.
Other similarities
Artist domicile
- Dresden silhouettes
" Canaletto view "
( Bernardo Bellotto )
" Waldschlösschenblick "
(2007)
Dresden - like Florence - has always attracted artists (see category: Artists (Dresden) ), who were inspired by its harmonious atmosphere and who understood its charming location and city skyline as a total work of art :
- "Dresden has a large, ceremonial position, in the middle of umkränzenden Elbhöhen that at some distance, as if they did not dare to approach out of respect, rearrange it. The river suddenly leaves its right bank and quickly turns to Dresden to kiss its darling. From the height of the Zwinger you can follow its course almost as far as Meißen . He soon turns to the right, now to the left bank, as if the choice difficult for him and staggers as delight, and winds playing in baptize detours by the friendly valley, as he was not in the sea. " ( Heinrich von Kleist )
- “Dresden was a wonderful city, full of art and history, and yet not a museum where six hundred and fifty thousand inhabitants happened to live. The past and the present lived in harmony with one another. Actually it should read: in two-tone. And with the landscape together, with the Elbe, the bridges, the hillsides, the forests and with the mountains on the horizon, there was even a triad. History, art and nature floated over town and valley, from the Meißner Dom to the Großsedlitzer Schloßpark, like a chord enchanted by its own harmony. " ( Erich Kästner 1957 in When I Was a Little Boy )
- “The fountains fell silent, the fountains collapsed, and only a few birdsong, mixed with the muffled noise of the city, echoed from the trees that towered over the stone courtyard. The musicians, greeted by applause, took their places in front of the central pavilion, which the light hollowed out wonderfully, and suddenly, all that was needed was a horn call, the silence was enchanted. ” ( Martin Raschke in Der Zauber Dresdens )
Town twinning
Florence
Dresden
Dresden has had one of its city partnerships with Florence since 1978 .
While only officially regulated events were possible until the fall of the Wall , contacts have started on a broader basis since then. This also includes regular exchange projects such as those of the Free Waldorf School , the Blasewitz High School and the Cotta High School with their partner schools .
UNESCO World Heritage (withdrawn from Dresden)
After the historic old town of Florence was included in the UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1982 as the “world's largest accumulation of universally known works of art” , the Elbe Valley's World Heritage designation within the city limits of Dresden in 2004 also included an appreciation of the quality and importance of Dresden's art collections.
While the Florentine World Heritage consists of the compact historical city center , the World Heritage in Dresden (title revoked in 2009) protected an extensive cultural landscape .
Political commitment
Due to their location close to the river, Dresden and Florence are not only particularly favored but also particularly endangered. This became evident when Florence in 1966 and Dresden in 2002 were hit by floods of catastrophic proportions.
The state capital Dresden therefore also took part in the commemoration event for the 40th anniversary of the devastating floods in Florence. The highlight of this event was the joint adoption by the cities of Dresden, Florence, Venice , Budapest and New Orleans of an “Appeal for the protection of the planet and the cultural and natural heritage from natural disasters due to climate change” .
See also
- Gerhard Wolf (born in Dresden, who protected threatened people and cultural assets as "Consul of Florence" from 1943–1944)
- Elbflorenz (TV series)
literature
- Barbara Marx: Florence on the Elbe - Italian presence in Dresden 16. – 19. Century . Verlag der Kunst, Amsterdam / Dresden 2000, ISBN 978-90-5705-150-0 .
- Jürgen Helfricht : Magical Dresden - Silhouettes of Florence on the Elbe . 1st edition, Husum Druck- und Verlagsgesellschaft, Husum 2010, ISBN 978-3-89876-405-6 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Gertrud Rudloff-Hille: The Italians of the Early Renaissance in the Dresden Gallery , Dresden 1959
- ↑ Dresden is in the magic of music - Saxony's capital offers visitors a great musical tradition ( Memento from June 16, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) - Dresden-Werbung und Tourismus GmbH, May 11, 2007
- ↑ a b c Fritz Löffler: The old Dresden - history of its buildings . Seemann-Henschel, ISBN 3-363-00007-3 .
- ^ Volker Helas: Architecture in Dresden 1800-1900 . 2. through Edition, Verlag Friedr. Vieweg & Sohn, Braunschweig 1986, ISBN 3-528-18696-8 , pp. 43 and 50.
- ^ Florence (Italy) - page of the state capital Dresden about the town twinning and the projects in this context
- ^ German UNESCO Commission: The Elbe Valley in Dresden
- ↑ Signed Appeal for the Protection of the Cultural and Natural Heritage. November 23, 2006, accessed on June 29, 2017 (notification from the City of Dresden).