History

Commissioned by August the Strong, the architect Matthäus Daniel Pöppelmann (1682-1737) planned and realized the Zwinger between 1711 and 1728. Pöppelmann had already been appointed Saxony’s master builder in 1705. In this function, even before the construction of the buildings, he had already planned an elaborate garden with an orangery. When the Zwinger was inaugurated in 1719 on the occasion of the electoral prince Frederick August’s marriage to the daughter of the Hapsburg emperor Archduchess Maria Josepha, the buildings had already been erected and, with their pavilions and arched galleries, formed a striking backdrop to the event. It was not until the completion of their interiors in 1728, however, that they could serve their intended functions as exhibition and library halls.

The Zwinger Pond and the garden with the water basins in the inner courtyard were added between 1820 and 1830. The completion of the Zwinger complex on the Elbe River side followed in 1847-1855 with the construction of the gallery wing by Gottfried Semper. Here again, the design was characterized by the interplay between architecture and sculpture. The sculptural decorations of the Semper Building were the work of the Dresden artist Ernst Rietschel.

It was during this period that the Zwinger was assigned its function as an exhibition building. Today it houses the Old Masters Picture Gallery, the Armoury, the Porcelain Collection and the Mathematisch-Physikalischer Salon.

The Zwinger was largely destroyed by the bomb attacks of World War II. The reconstruction measures were begun immediately after the war and the gallery building was reopened in its entirety in 1960. Between 1988 and 1992 the Semper Building underwent thorough modernization in conjunction with measures to preserve and reconstruct the historical building fabric.