Altmarkt

The Altmarkt is a massive, rectangular stone square that stretches across the heart of Dresden. It has served as the city’s central marketplace since the thirteenth century, hosting everything from royal tournaments to public executions. In February nineteen forty-five, the Allied firebombing destroyed almost every building facing the square, leaving the area a charred wasteland. Only the massive steeple of the Kreuzkirche remained upright among the ruins, rising like a jagged tooth above the flattened, empty center of the city.