Great Garden Palace (Palais im Großen Garten)
The Grosser Garten (English: Great Garden), a palace and park ensemble located one kilometer southeast of the center of Dresden was originally a suburban area. The palace created by architect Johann Georg Starcke in the Great Garden by combining Italian and French influences is an architectural landmark of Europe-wide significance. Constructed in the period between 1676 and 1692, the H-shaped sandstone building features richly decorated facades and the roof which was once blue. In the central part of the building, there is a large gala hall that faces all the four cardinal directions. The hall is decorated with colored stucco ornaments, artificial marble columns first made by Italians in Dresden, and a huge fresco by court artist Samuel Bottschild.
Peter I visited the Great Garden and the Palace during his first visit to Dresden as part of the Grand Embassy travels in 1698. On June 3/13, the Tsar sent the Grand Ambassadors and the retinue to look around the Palace and the Garden, while the Tsar himself and the governor, Prince of Fürstenberg accompanied by a page took a ride in a carriage outside the city. In the evening, everybody had dinner in the Palace, and there was a night ball. About four o’clock in the morning on June 4/14, the Tsar and his entourage left for the Königstein Fortress.
On September 9/20 to 11/22, 1711, Peter I stayed in Dresden again, on his way to Carlsbad. It is known that on October 21, he visited the Great Garden and rode a merry-go-round.
The Palace was fundamentally restored in 1828–1830, and after that it became to be used as a venue for hosting exhibitions and concerts. Between the mid-19th century and 1945, the Palace housed the Saxon Museum of Antiquities.
On the night of February 13 to February 14, 1945, the Palace was destroyed by a direct bomb hit. The roof and most of the ceilings were smashed, the murals and the stucco moldings in the Great Gala Hall were almost completely gone. In the 1950s, the Palace began to be gradually restored. In 1999–2000, the façades and some rooms on the ground floor were restored using funds from the Saxon government. Today, the Palace hosts concerts, exhibitions and public events.
