The Procession of Princes
Baroque Dresden.
Day 11: Baroque Dresden and Dynamic Berlin - Friday, August 18, 2023
We left Erfurt this morning and we are heading to Berlin for our last city of the tour. On the way to Berlin, we stopped at Dresden for a walking tour with Michael as our guide. I always thought of Dresden as a dreary dark city but what a surprise. Dresden is beautiful with its baroque architecture. What a lovely city. We viewed the Baroque Mathematics Physics Salon which is a museum of historic clocks and scientific instruments. We also viewed the 18th century Baroque gateway topped with an ornate crown marking the entrance to the palace complex. In the Middle Ages, knightly games and tournaments took place in the Stallhof (Stall Courtyard), which is part of the big Royal Palace complex. The Procession of Princes was very impressive. More than 24,000 tiles were used to represent the 35 margraves, princes and kings as well as 59 scientists, artisans, craftsmen and farmers. It is known as the largest porcelain artwork in the world. |
Ornate crown,Museum of historic clocks, Palace courtyard, Procession of Princes
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The tour of Dresden with Michael was over and we headed to the Royal Palace Museum with the goal of seeing the Dresden Green Diamond. The Dresden Green Diamond, also known as the Dresden Green, is a 41-carat natural green diamond which originated in the mines of India.
The Dresden Green Diamond has a historical record dating back to 1722, when a London news-sheet carried an article about it in its 25 October-27th edition. It was acquired by Augustus III of Poland from a Dutch merchant in 1742 at the Leipzig Fair. In 1768, the diamond was incorporated into an extremely valuable hat ornament, surrounded by two large and 411 medium-sized and small diamonds. This is the setting that the Dresden Green still appears in today. It is an amazing diamond. |
Dresden Green Diamond
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After our tour of the unexpected beauty of Dresden, we were off to Berlin, our last stop of the tour. We arrived later in the afternoon but we had enough time to make a stop at Berlin's East Side Park. East Side Park and the Berlin Wall Trail is where some of the Berlin Wall remains as an open air art gallery. At 1316 metres long, the open-air art gallery on the banks of the Spree is the longest continuous section of the Berlin Wall still in existence. Immediately after the wall came down, 118 artists from 21 countries began painting the East Side Gallery, and it officially opened as an open air gallery on 28 September 1990. Just over a year later, it was given protected memorial status.
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Art on the Berlin Wall Trail
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