Dresden Frauenkirche

The Frauenkirche dome rises above the Elbe as a great bulb of sandstone and marble, 91.68 metres tall at its crown, its stone canopy supported by four massive piers in a ring of arcade windows that floods the interior with light reflected from the river below. Built between 1726 and 1743 to the design of Dresden architect George Bähr, it was the principal Protestant church of the city — a declaration of faith and civic pride in the newly Protestant Electorate of Saxony.

Bähr designed the dome without the flying butresses typical of French Gothic cathedrals, using instead an inner dome of brick and an outer dome of sandstone linked by a system of chains and iron rings that allowed the structure to support its own weight through compression rather than lateral thrust, a technically daring solution that enabled the open, airy interior. The acoustics of the main auditorium were considered extraordinary in the 18th century; the composer Heinrich Schütz gave the inaugural performance in 1736 with music composed for the occasion.

The interior was designed around a central space that put the congregation on an equal footing around the preacher, a radical departure from the longitudinal layout of Catholic churches and a reflection of Protestant theology. On 13 February 1945, an Allied bombing raid turned the church into a mountain of burning stone that collapsed inward over several days. The ruins stood for five decades as a memorial to the devastation of war, deliberately left untouched by the East German authorities who governed Dresden after 1945, their slogan painted on the walls: Errichtet von Frieden, zerstört vom Krieg — Built in peace, destroyed by war.

After reunification, an international fundraising campaign — financed in part by the British, whose bombs had contributed to the destruction — financed the reconstruction, which began in 1993 and was completed in 2005, a decade of meticulous work by archaeologists, stonemasons and engineers using traditional techniques. Approximately 40 percent of the surviving original stones were identified, catalogued and reincorporated into the rebuilt structure, making the new church a palimpsest of its own history.

The crypt contains a permanent exhibition tracing the church's construction, destruction and reconstruction. Visitors can climb the dome's inner walkway — 200 steps — past the stone ring beam and through the drum, to a viewing platform at the base of the lantern, from which the whole of Dresden and the Elbe valley open out below. The Frauenkirche was reconsecrated in 2005 with a service attended by the British royal family and German leaders, and is once again the spiritual and symbolic centre of the city.

The rebuilt church is a unique palimpsest: 40 percent original stone recovered from the 1945 ruins, set into a meticulously reconstructed whole.

George Bähr's dome without flying buttresses is a structural daring that makes the interior unusually light and open.

The site symbolises the arc of German history from 18th-century Protestant civic pride to Cold War memorial to post-reunification reconciliation.