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DRESDEN
17th
- 20th June 2004
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Our aim is to introduce Dresden and its industrial,
commercial and transport heritage to you by exploring a
broad range of sites, mostly seen from the exterior but, as usual,
using public transport which, in Dresden includes river travel, a
funicular and the Schwebebahn. |
| Dresden deserves its nickname as ‘Florence on the
Elbe’. Its beautiful centre, now restored, once more stands proudly
at the centre of the city. So much has had to be rebuilt, that it is
surprising how much there still remains of Dresden the 19th
century industrial city at the heart of a great agricultural area. On
the other hand, our hotel is on the pedestrianised Prager Strasse
which was built in the 1960s to link the Hauptbahnhof with the Altstadt, an outstanding example of a ‘socialist realism’
architecture. |
(c) Sue Hayton, 2004 |
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The
Berliner Bahnhof with our Safari group
(c)
Sue Hayton, 2004
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Despite British intentions, there are the
remains of a number of early railway stations including the terminus
of the first main line in Germany, the Leipzig - Dresden line. This
line arrived in the Dresden Neustadt in 1839 and the late 19th
century station stands close by. This has been recently restored but
retains a number of interesting features such as platform buildings
and a water crane. The Hauptbahnhof in the Altstadt was damaged in the
war and is currently undergoing more renovations so we shall not see
it at its best. However we can see the now-disused Berliner Bahnhof of
1873 as well as the later railway repair buildings of 1935 erected for
the Reichsbahn. Housing was always important and we will also see a
number of tenement blocks provided for the railway workers in a range
of styles. |
| Our journeys round the city will be on tram and
bus, this year marks the 90th anniversary of the Dresden
buses. We will be able to see an art deco tram depot as well as
preserved trams and other transport remains in the wonderful city
Transport Museum. This is housed in part of the old castle stables and
what stables they are, with an amazing double staircase as an
entrance. The Albert Hafen was an inlet dock opened off the
Elbe in 1895, there are a number of interesting buildings here
including warehouses and grain silos in differing styles dating from
1895 to 1955. Close by, on what was once an island in the Elbe, is the
former Cattle Market and Slaughterhouses. Some of the buildings are
now used as Exhibition Halls. The groups of buildings are in the form
of a country village, surely an unusual sight? |
Grand
Grain Silo on Albert Hafen
(c)
Sue Hayton |
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The
Yenidze Cigarette Factory
(c)
Sue Hayton, 2004 |
Friedrichstadt is a neglected jewel of Baroque
architecture close to the railway lands and we will pause here to
admire some of the renovated 18th century houses as well as
the Krankenhaus Friedrichstadt, a hospital dating from the 19th
century in an 18th century palace. Here too can be found
the Yenidze tobacco factory in the form of a mosque complete with
minarets and glass dome. The building served as an advertisement for
the Turkish tobacco to be found in the cigarettes made here. This
building serves too as a symbol of the restoration of older industrial
buildings in the city |
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We will also have the chance to see the remaining
town gas holders in the city which were both enclosed, one in brick
and the other, more unusually, in concrete. This was the second gas
works in the city and we will also see the first site which was later
used for generating electricity for the city centre in impressive
expressionist brick buildings.
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(c)
Sue Hayton |
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(c) Sue Hayton, 2004 |
Our last morning in the city will
be spent on a number of unique forms of transport. Firstly we will sail down the
river on a paddle steamer of the Weisse Flotte. Dresden is lucky that she has a
number of late 19th century steam paddlers, now using oil-fired boilers. Our
destination is Loschwitz and the 'Blaues Wunder', the only Dresden bridge to
survive the war unscathed. Here we will use a suspended railway of 1901, the
first in the world, to ascend the hills to view the Elbe below. After that we
will go up an early funicular of 1895 for another view of the sites we have
visited on our weekend in Dresden.
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City Safaris are organised by
Heritage of Industry Ltd, 80 Udimore Road, Rye, Sussex, TN31 7DY
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