Dresden, Germany - Coventry's twin towns and cities
Name
Dresden
Year of twinning
1959
About the town or city
Dresden is the capital of the German State of Saxony.
The common fate of the two cities during World War II and their many years of efforts for reconciliation and understanding among people resulted in the twinning of the two cities. Nowadays, both cities seek to build on the twinning relationship to promote the economic prosperity of the two cities by developing opportunities for partnership projects.
Dresden lies on the River Elbe in east central Germany, near the border with the Czech Republic. The economy of Dresden is based primarily on port activities and the manufacture of high-tech items, including specialized optical and medical equipment, computers, musical instruments, machinery, and tools.
'Dresden is a city in which history, architecture and landscape come together in harmony.' This was first remarked by Erich Kästner and is still very much the case today.
One of Europe’s foremost cultural centres before World War II, Dresden suffered greatly from Allied bombing raids in 1945. Indeed much of the 'Florence on the Elbe' was rebuilt after the war. Among the reconstructed or meticulously restored edifices are the 18th-century Zwinger Palace, which houses several important museums; the Dresden State Opera House; and a number of churches, such as the rococo Hofkirche and the Kreuzkirche, in part dating from the 15th century. The reconstruction of the 'Frauenkirche', or Church of Our Lady has also recently been completed, indeed Coventry Cathedral also presented the Church with a Cross of Nails to mark its reopening.
Dresden Technical University, the Carl Gustav Carus Medical Academy of Dresden, the Friedrich List University of Transportation of Dresden, and a school of music are located in the city.
