Ten essential works of art to see in Dresden

"Before the Second World War, Dresden was commonly regarded as Germany's most beautiful city, marked by Baroque silhouettes and filled with cherished collections of the fine and applied arts. Then came the Allied air raids of February 1945, and Dresden underwent what could be described as a horrific rebrand-becoming Germany's most decimated metropolis. Decades of rebuilding later, however, it is once again what Germans call a Kunststadt -a city of art."

"The art there is overwhelmingly concentrated in the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden (SKD), comprising 15 museums that still largely reflect the tastes and tendencies of Saxony's House of Wettin, who reigned from the 15th century until 1918. The city's golden age came in the 18th century, when the Wettin ruler Augustus the Strong served as both the prince-elector in Saxony and the king of Poland, turning his Residenzstadt into one of Europe's most alluring and spendthrift courts."

Dresden was once Germany's most beautiful city, featuring Baroque architecture and rich fine and applied arts collections. Allied air raids in February 1945 devastated the city, which underwent decades of rebuilding and later regained status as a Kunststadt, or city of art. The Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden (SKD) houses 15 museums reflecting the artistic tastes of Saxony's House of Wettin, whose 18th-century rulers Augustus the Strong and Frederick Augustus II enriched the collections with major European works. Key museum sites include the Zwinger, the Residenzschloss, and the Albertinum. Raphael's Sistine Madonna arrived in Dresden in 1754 after an expensive purchase.

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