Frauenkirche Dresden

The Frauenkirche rises as a bell-shaped stone dome, distinct from the surrounding rooftops of the Dresden Altstadt. Its massive dome, nicknamed the Stone Bell, collapsed into a heap of blackened rubble following the firebombing of the city in February nineteen forty-five. For over forty years, those ruins remained as a war memorial in the center of the city. Then, citizens began a massive fundraising effort to rebuild the church stone by stone using original fragments mixed with new, lighter sandstone.