The majestic Dresden Frauenkirche or the Church of Our Lady in Dresden was constructed on the rubbles of the 18th century Baroque Lutheran Church, which collapsed on 15 February 1945, consequent to the Allied firebombing of Dresden during the last phase of World War II. However, the history of the church dates back to the 11th century, when a church dedicated to Our Lady was built in a Romanesque style outside the city walls, surrounded by graveyards. Originally, it was the seat of an Archpriest of the Meissen Diocese, which later became a Protestant church after the Reformation. After hundreds of years of its service, that first Frauenkirche was pulled down to be replaced by a larger Lutheran parish church with more capacity to accommodate the growing population of the city.

Although by that time, the Prince-elector, Frederick August I, had converted to Catholicism to become the King of Poland, he supported the construction, and designed by the city architect, George Bahr, the new Baroque church was built between 1726 and 1743.Topped with one of the largest domes in Europe, the new church instantly became one of the most iconic buildings of the city of Dresden.

While the newly built Protestant church was a medley of artwork and frescos, its dome, along with its golden cross, was for decades the crowning glory of the Dresden skyline for more than 200 years. In fact, the most distinctive feature of the church was its 315 feet (96 m) high dome, called the Stone Bell, a wonderful engineering achievement, like Michelangelo’s creation of the dome for St Peter’s Basilica in Rome.

The huge dome with unconventional height, made of piles of sandstone, weighing more than 10,000 tones, was placed on eight slender supports, and despite the initial doubts, it proved to be extremely stable. It is said that during the Seven Years’ War, the dome survived despite being hit by more than a hundred cannonballs fired by the Prussian army led by Friedrich I.

George Bahr, the designer of the church, made the front of the middle section of the church the real stunner and intentionally incorporated the new Protestant liturgy by placing the pulpit, altar, and baptismal font directly centre under the view of the entire gathering of the worshippers. Gottfried Silbermann, a reputed organ maker, built a three-manual, 43-stop instrument for the church, which was dedicated on 25 November 1736.

And on1st December, in the same year, the great German composer and musician Johann Sebastian Bach gave a recital on the instrument before a selected audience.

Located below the organ, the large altar depicts Jesus’ agony in the Garden of Gethsemane on the Mount of Olives, created by Johann Christian Feige. It shows Jesus, with the olive trees behind him, and praying to the angel, accented in gold and coming down from heaven. The baroque frescoes painted around the dome are scenes of the four evangelists Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and depicting the allegories of the Christian virtues of belief, love, hope, and mercy.It seems that the frescoes were painted to reflect the lives of the evangelists and also the lives of the ordinary people, as the scenes are set on earth and seem more related to common people. The clear glass windows on the top allow the sunlight to filter inside the church to make it naturally illuminated.

During the revolutionary disturbances in 1849, known as the May Uprising, Dresden Frauenkirche was surrounded by barricades, and fighting lasted for days until the rebels were rounded up in the church and arrested. But unfortunately, it had to face the final blow during the Second World War. When the Anglo-American Allied Forces began the bombing of Dresden on 13 February 1945, the church withstood the attacks for two days and nights, and its huge dome, supported by the strong pillars, successfully provided shelter for the 300 people till they were safely evacuated. Finally, when the pillars glowed bright red and exploded due to the extreme heat generated by the fire in consequence of the bombing, the outer walls shattered, and stones weighing thousands of tons plunged to earth, penetrating the massive floor of the church.

As the majestic building of the Dresden Frauenkirche, crowned with the huge dome, complete with a golden cross vanished from the skyline of Dresden, its ruins with the heaps of blackened stones remained in a pile in the centre of the city as a reminder of the horrors of war for around four decades. Although the residents of the city were salvaging the pieces of shattered and blackened sandstones from the ruins, and no intention in spending money to reconstruct the church. They wanted to clear the ruins away to construct a car park, but had to give up the idea for public sentiment. Although the City of Dresden Council finally resolved in 1966 to officially declare the ruins of the church as a memorial and erected a commemorative plaque, on 13 February 1982, on the anniversary of the bombing, 400 people gathered peacefully in silence at the site with flowers and candles as a symbol for growing civil right movements in Eastern Germany, combined with peaceful protests against the East German regime. The reunification of Germany in 1990 brought new life to the reconstruction plans of the church, and an international fundraising effort gathered momentum. Hundreds of architects, art historians and engineers spiritedly sorted the thousands of stones, identifying and labeling each for reuse in the new structure, others worked to raise money.

After the destruction of the iconic building of the Dresden Frauenkirche in 1945, the Dresden City Council decided to proceed with its reconstruction in February 1992, based on the original plans of Georg Bähr in the 1720s. The foundation stone was laid in 1994, which was stabilized in 1995. By that time, 8,500 stones were salvaged from the original church, out of which 3,800 were reused by putting them exactly in the same position as they were in the past. It is said that about 80 percent of the altar is made of 1,642 fragmented stones. Apart from the old carved oak doors, even the beautiful murals and other artworks were skillfully recreated. While the crypt was completed in 1996, the reconstruction of the inner cupola was completed in 2000. The exterior was completed in 2004, and with the completion of the painted interior in 2005, the project of rebuilding the magnificent landmark of the city was completed one year before the schedule, and in time for the 800th anniversary of the city of Dresden in 2006. However, the church was reconsecrated on 30 October 2005 with festive services lasting through the Protestant observance of Reformation Day on 31 October.

Seven new bells were cast for the new church that rang for the first time for the celebration of Pentecost, the 50th day or the seventh Sunday from Easter Sunday, in 2003. The new organ, containing 68 stops and a fourth swell manual in the symphonic 19th century style, was built by the company Daniel Kern from Strasbourg. The new golden tower cross, one of the most important pieces of restoration, was officially funded by the British people and the House of Windsor and was created by Alan Smith, a blacksmith of the British silversmith companyGrant Macdonald, whose father was one of the bomber pilots responsible for the destruction of the church. However, the original damaged cross is still found at the church’s new altar. The statue of Martin King Luther which was installed outside the church survived the bombing and still stands as glorious and tall as ever. An original piece of the dome, blackened from the explosion, is also exhibited outside the front doors of the church as a memorial to the original church and those who died trying to protect it.

The interior of the Dresden Frauenkirche is equipped with a circular naïve surrounded by galleries. The inner dome around the nave is painted with vibrant colours, depicting the four virtues and the evangelists. A ramp runs between the inner and the outer dome to the viewing platform at the top, from where the visitors can enjoy the astounding views of the city, which include among others, the Orange roofs of the Dresden State Art Collections, the pointed spire of the Dresden Castle, and the Glass roof of the Dresden Green Vault.