Exterior view

The Zwinger is a palace in Dresden, built in Rococo style and designed by court architect Matthäus Daniel Pöppelmann. It served as the orangery, exhibition gallery and festival arena of the Dresden Court.

Frederick Augustus I (the Strong) (1670-1733) and his son Frederick Augustus II (1696-1763) together transformed Dresden and Saxony into a grandiose Baroque treasure chest. Moreover, Saxony could claim a position at the centre of German music during this period.

Frederick Augustus I commissioned the sculptor and architect Marcus Conrad Dietze (1658-1704) from Ulm to plan a new royal seat. After Dietze's death Pöppelmann and Balthasar Permoser were appointed as his successors. In 1709 Pöppelmann began drawing up comprehensive plans. In 1716 the single-storey gallery buildings of the orangery formed an omega-shaped ground plan, with the Wallpavillon added over the stairs midway along the curved galleries.

The king wanted a spacious and unusual festival ground (the Zwinger garden) without any direct link to the architecture of the palace. Pöppelmann submitted a simple but inspired plan which included a new group of buildings that was a mirror image of the existing ones. Construction of the Zwinger was completed in 1728.

The picture shows the rampart pavilion (Wallpavillon) of the Zwinger.

View the plan of the Zwinger, Dresden.