Dresden Subway Map
MUSEUMS
After several years of renovations, Dresden’s museums are once again ready to compete with the best in Europe. If you plan on visiting more than one in a day, consider a Tageskarte (‚10, students and seniors ‚6), which gives one-day admission to the Albertinum museums, the Schlofi, most of the Zwinger, and more.
ZWINGER. Through the archway from the Semper-Oper, BGemaldegalerie Alte Meister has a world-class collection of predominantly Italian and Dutch paintings from 1400 to 1800. Cranach the Elder’s luminous Adam and Eve paintings, Rubens’s Leda and the Swan, and Raphael’s Sistine Madonna are good company. (Open Su and Tu-Sa 10am-6pm. ‚6, students ‚3.50. Tours Fand Su at 11am and 4pm, ‚0.50.) The nearby Riistkammer shows shiny but deadly toys from the court of the Wettin princes: Ivory-inlaid guns, chain mail, and the wee armor of the Wettin toddlers. (Open Su and Tu-Sa 10am-6pm. ‚1.50, students and seniors ‚1; covered by admission to the Gemaldegalerie Alte Meister.) With over 20,000 pieces, the Porzellan-sammlung boasts the largest collection of European porcelain in the world. (Open Su-W and F-Sa 10am-6pm. ‚1.50, students and seniors ‚1.) Europe’s oldest science museum, the Mathematisch-Physikalischer Salon is a small room with 16th-to 19th-century scientific instruments that are far more stylish than the ones we use today. (Open Su-W and F-Sa 10am-6pm. ‚1.50, students ‚1.)
ALBERTINUM. The Gemaldegalerie Neue Meister picks up in the 19th century where the Alte Meister gallery leaves off, with such German and French Impressionists as Degas, Monet, Renoir, and hometown hero Caspar David Friedrich. Check out Otto Dix’s renowned War triptych, along with the Expressionist and Neue Sachlichkeit works. (Open Su-W and F-Sa 10am-6pm. ‚6, students and seniors ‚3.50.) The immense Skulpturensammlung collection of classical sculpture was rescued from the basement during the 2002 floods, and will likely fill the void left by the departure of the Grimes Gewolbe in December 2003.
DEUTSCHES HYGIENEMUSEUM. The world’s first public health museum is famous for its Glass Man, a transparent human model with illuminated organs, and its rotating exhibits. (Lingnerpl. 1; enter from Blijherstr. www.dhmd.de. Open Su and Sa 10am-6pm, Tu-F 9am-5pm. ‚2.50, students ‚1.50. Special exhibits ‚4, students ‚2.)
STADTMUSEUM. This museum tells the story of the city since its birth in the 13th century; early history pales before 20th-century memorabilia, including a 1902 replica firefighter with a helmet-sprinkler and a Volksgasmask (People’s Gas Mask). (Wilsdmffer Str. 2, near Pimaischer PI. Open M-Th and Sa-Su 10am-6pm. ‚2, students ‚1.)
