Japanese Palais (1727-33; Matthaeus Daniel Poeppelmann)

The Japanese Palais sits on the banks of the Elbe with a roof shaped like an inverted bell. Augustus the Strong commissioned the building in seventeen twenty-seven to house his massive collection of East Asian porcelain. He intended to turn the structure into a true palace of porcelain, covering interior walls and even exterior garden statues in ceramic. When he died in seventeen thirty-three, the project stalled, leaving the grand plan unfinished and the building waiting for a purpose that never fully arrived.