Dresden Frauenkirche

The Dresden Frauenkirche, also known as the “Church of Our Lady”, is located in Dresden, Germany.

The Dresden Frauenkirche is a Protestant cathedral that was built by Fredrick August I. The church was designed by George Bahr, a German architect, who died before the construction of the church. In the year1736, Gottfried Silbermann, an organ maker constructed a three manual organ for the church. On November 25th, 1736,  the organ was presented to the church.

The construction of the dome was completed in the year 1760. It was about 96 meters high and was named “Stone Bell”. The Dome is often compared to St Peters Basilica, in Rome. The dome was hit by 100 cannonballs by the Prussian army during the time of Seven Years War, but in despite of attacks on the church like this one, it still survived.

On February 13th, 1945, the Anglo-American forces bombed Dresden Frauenkirche with almost 650,000 bombs, and the church lasted for two days under such strong attacks. The temperature caused by bombings reached upwards of1000 degrees which caused the dome to collapse on February 15th, taking with it the pillars and outer walls, thus destroying the entire structure of the church.

After the destruction of the church, several attempts were made to rebuild it. Gunter Blobel was the first person who took an active part in campaigning for the church’s restoration. He even donated one million dollars, which he was given with the Nobel Prize he was given for his contributions in the field of medicine.

Finally in 1994, the construction of the church began under the supervision of Eberhard Burger, who used the previous plans of the church by Georg Bahr. The church was constructed based on the pictures of the old church. The chapel was finished in 1996 and the dome was completed in the year 2000. Many pieces of the previous church’s ruins were used in the construction of the new church. Almost 8,500 stones of the previous one were taken, but only 3800 stones were used in the new building.

In addition, seven bells were added to the church in the year 2003, and Martin Luther’s bronze statue that survived the bombings was restored at the church entrance. On June 22nd of 2004, the construction was completed.

In present day, the Dresden Frauenkirche stands as a fine example in the field of construction. The Dresden Frauenkirche is also a popular tourist spot that is visited by the people from all over the world

Dresden Frauenkirche