It Has Been Rebuilt Since, And No One Would
Know That The Arch Had Ever Been Blown Up, But From The Extreme Whiteness
Of The New Arch, Contrasting With The Darker Color Of The Old Ones.
In the old town or Dresden proper, the finest buildings are:
The Catholic
church, standing near the bridge, an edifice yielding in beauty but to few
in Italy and to none in other countries. Here you hear excellent music
during the church service; and the King and Royal family, all of whom are
Catholics, attend constantly. The Royal Palace is very near the church and
not far from it is the theatre. Saxony being a Lutheran country, the public
exercise of the Catholic religion was not permitted until Napoleon's time,
when he proposed an arrangement to permit to the King and all other
Catholics the public celebration of their religion, which proposition was
acceded to with universal approbation on the part of the Protestants, and
now the Host is frequently displayed in the streets. There are however but
few Catholics in Dresden among the natives. So great is the respect for
usages and customs in Germany, that the Electors of Saxony, on going over
to Catholicism, never thought even of requesting the indulgence of
exercising their religion publicly, and the granting it has produced no
evil consequence, liberalism and the most unreserved toleration in matters
of religion being the order of the day.
The Royal Palace is a very fine and extensive building and the interior is
well worth seeing, particularly the superb Riesen-Saal where Augustus II
used to give his magnificent fetes.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 517 of 558
Words from 140399 to 140668
of 151859
