Just ANOTHER Church?????

We have been moving very quickly over the past few days. We are criss-crossing the countryside, which I must add is very beautiful. Everything is very green and the trees are in the processing of changing into their autumn colour, with little villages dotted everywhere – each with its church spire! Gorgeous! We popped into Czech Republic (Prague) then popped back again into Germany (Dresden).

Dresden is another beautiful city with stunning architecture everywhere in the city. But the most intriguing building in this city is the Frauen Kirche (Church of Our Blessed Lady). Now don’t be confused – this is a Evangelical (Lutheran) Church with a great big statue of Luther out the front.

This is a group of "Lutherans" in front of Frauenkirchke and Luther's statue.

Here is the history of Fauenkirschke in a nutshell:

Original church that stood on this site was consecrated to Mary – thus the name “Frauenkirche”.

By the early 18 century this “Gothic” church was in a poor state of repair.

In 1722 the Dresden City Council commissioned a master carpenter – George Bahr – to draw up plans for a new place of worship.

The dome (bell of stone) was an architectural masterpiece weighing 12,000 tons.

Construction was completed 17 years later when the pinnacle cross was set up on top of the dome in 1743 (how did they do this in those days????)

On 13^th February 1945, Dresden was bombed and the Frauenkirche was gutted by fire. Two days later the dome collapse in on the church.

The ruins and rubble of Frauenkirche stayed like that for 45 years ‘like an open wound’.

13 February 1990 (exactly 45 years later) a group of citizens set up the “Appeal from Dresden” to raise funds to reconstruct the Frauenkirche. The world wide response was overwhelming and the Dresden foundation was set up in 1994.

Reconstruction began in 1994. Based on three principles: 1. George Bahr’s Frauenkirche was to be rebuilt according to the original plans and use as much of the original structure and material as possible; 2. State of the art technology be employed in the process; and 3. Everything required to ensure lively usage of the church building should be taken into consideration.

After a painstaking process of archaeological work and reconstruction, the Frauenkirche was completed and consecrated in 2005 with a Christian (Lutheran!) service of great joy & thanksgiving to God. The British people, including the Cathedral in Coventry (Britain), which was destroyed by German bombers in 1940, donated the magnificent new pinnacle cross which sits on top of the 70 metre high stone dome! We were really moved by this (& other) symbols of reconciliation and the story of Frauenkirche.

We were also blessed to be able to come back that evening for a 10:30pm Organ recital, including works by Bach and a rendition of “A Mighty Fortress is Our God”! Special moments!

In the square in front of Frauenkirchke we saw the most dedicated Busker in the world. Check out the photos!



Our new friend the "Busker" who brings his grand piano on a trailer pulled by his three wheeled motor bike which he parks outside the square somewhere, he then pushes the trailer "mit piano" into the square right up to Luther's statue for the afternoon's busking! Now that's dedication.





David offered to help him push the trailer the last few metres! (And then we didn't even get to here him play!!)