Georgentor (Dresden)
The Georgentor or the Georgenbau is the original city exit from Dresden to the Elbe bridge. It is located in the inner old town on Schloßplatz between the Residenzschloss and the stable yard . This first Renaissance building in Dresden was initiated by Georg the Bearded , who had the former city gate converted into the Georgentor from 1530 to 1535 , which was then the only Dresden Elbe bridge . Today the building impresses with its representative facade in the monumental neo-renaissance style .
history
The old city exit to the Elbe bridge, the Elbtor of the city fortress, was converted from 1530 to 1535 by the master builder Bastian Kramer under the building management of Hans von Dehn-Rothfelser to the so-called Georgentor. It was the first Renaissance building in Dresden, before the reconstruction of the residential palace, but with echoes of Lombard architecture.
The front side of the building was related to religious themes. This was shown by both the figurative decorations (here the depiction of “life and death”) and his motto : “Per Invidiam Diaboli Mors Intravit In Orbem” (death came into the world through the envy of the devil). This expresses the great piety of Duke George the Bearded . The “ Dresden Dance of Death ” was part of the building facade, which is now housed in the Dreikönigskirche . The motto is above the archway "at the old Georgentor" (now arranged on the west side of the building).
The Georgentor was walled up in the middle of the 16th century. The traffic was not routed via Schloßstraße , which began at Georgentor, as was the case before , but through the expanded Elbtor via Augustusstraße and Neumarkt . During this time (1556), Elector August had his previous state capital Freiberg relocated to the immediate vicinity of his residential palace next to the Georgentor in the course of extensive reforms. His goal was to operate only one state mint .
After the destruction by the castle fire in 1701 , the electoral and royal apartments were furnished in the Georgenbau in 1718 and 1719 by the Frenchman Raymond Leplat , who also designed the baroque furnishings of the Moritzburg castle . In his day, the state apartments of August the Strong were located there . The complete restoration was then carried out by 1730 by Johann Georg Maximilian von Fürstenhoff , the illegitimate son of Johann Georg III.
After the Georgentor was increased in size in 1833, the small ballroom was set up between 1866 and 1868 .
Until 1901, in connection with the castle renovation, the facade was redesigned in the neo-Renaissance style by Gustav Dunger and Gustav Frölich . The arched portal on the Elbe side (former north portal) was moved to the west side towards the Hofkirche . The larger than life, approx. Four meter high equestrian statue of Duke George the Bearded in the display gable of the Georgentor was created by the sculptor Christian Behrens .
The last Saxon King Friedrich August III. lived in the Georgenbau until 1918.
After the Georgentor was destroyed by the air raids on Dresden in February 1945, the exterior of the building was rebuilt in the mid-1960s, but changed.
present
Even today the passage is closed to car traffic. Due to the location in the immediate vicinity of the castle and on the axis Prager Straße - Augustusbrücke - Hauptstraße - Albertplatz, there are significant pedestrian flows through the gate.
Exhibitions
The following exhibitions are currently on view in the Georgenbau:
- Münzkabinett - a collection of historical coins and medals
- Worldview and knowledge around 1600 - a permanent exhibition of works of art from the former Dresden Art Chamber
also the silver weapon room and the small ballroom .
Views
Jagdtor, 1679, on the left the long corridor, on the right the entrance to the Elbtor, in the back the tower-like Georgentor
Georgentor, south side, 1680
Georgentor, north side, 1679
North side in the 19th century
Left statue at the Georgentor
Closing stone at Georgentor
Right statue at the Georgentor
Hunting gate to the left of the Georgentor
Ernst Kunze: Dresden Elbe Bridge 1731, detail with Elbe Gate
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Fritz Löffler : The old Dresden - history of its buildings. EA Seemann, Leipzig 1981, ISBN 3-363-00007-3 .
- ^ Lienhard Buck: The coins of the Electorate of Saxony 1763 to 1806. Berlin 1981, p. 50.
Coordinates: 51 ° 3 ′ 11 ″ N , 13 ° 44 ′ 17 ″ E