Dresden City Museum displays tell the 800-year story of the city and is the largest and most important of the Dresden State Museums. Its art collections split off in 2000 to form the Dresden City Art Gallery, but both the Art Gallery and the Museum are housed in Dresden's Landhaus.
The Landhaus houses the Dresden City Museum. It was built between 1770 and 1776 and designed by Friedrich August Krubsacius using a mixture of baroque, rococo and classical elements. It was the seat of the Landtag of Saxony (Parliament of Saxony) from 1832 to 1907, when the Landtag was moved to the Ständehaus.
The museum's permanent exhibition covers various aspects of Dresden's history, including its cultural and business history. More than 1000 exhibits are on display in four rooms. The exhibitions cover more than 1800 square metres over several floors. Twenty media stations also provide information about Dresden's development over the last 800 years. Various educational activities are also on offer. Three models of the city, the oldest city seal dating from 1309, busts from the Busmannkapelle and documents and objects from the destruction of the city by the Anglo-American bombing of Dresden in 1945 are amongst the exhibits on show. The exhibition also covers for example the history of the Dresden Fire Department with a baroque and hand-driven fire pump dating from 1759. Visitors can also walk on a 10x6 metre aerial photo of the city and look at a 2x 1,5 metre relief model of the Dresden Elbe Valley. The building's ballroom is used for lectures and other events.
Besides the exhibits on display, the museum also houses a research collection which is the basis for the museum as a place of research. The scientific collection is extensive and includes objects related to the culture, history of, and daily life in the city. The objects can be divided into various groups.
The collection of photographs and postcards contains around 200,000 objects. The emphasis is on views of the city, historical events, portraits of Dresden personalities and the work of Dresden photographers (that of August Kotzsch, amongst others). The collection includes daguerreotypes, tintypes and other photographs taken using old techniques, as well as complete collections of collectors who have died. Of particular note are the more than 1000 photographs of the city and its personalities dating from the middle of the 19th century to around 1930.
The object collection includes around 30,000 objects in 29 groups. These include objects relating to interior decoration, household management, clothes, militaria, musical instruments, toys, medals and coins, machines, instruments and applied arts.
References:Tyniec Benedictine abbey was founded by King Casimir the Restorer probably around 1044. Casimir decided to rebuild the newly established Kingdom of Poland, after a Pagan rebellion and a disastrous Czech raid of Duke Bretislaus I (1039). The Benedictines, invited to Tyniec by the King, were tasked with restoring order as well as cementing the position of the State and the Church. First Tyniec Abbot was Aaron, who became the Bishop of Kraków. Since there is no conclusive evidence to support the foundation date as 1040, some historians claim that the abbey was founded by Casimir the Restorer’ son, King Boleslaw II the Generous.
In the second half of the 11th century, a complex of Romanesque buildings was completed, consisting of a basilica and the abbey. In the 14th century, it was destroyed in Tatar and Czech raids, and in the 15th century it was rebuilt in Gothic style. Further remodelings took place in the 17th and 18th centuries, first in Baroque, then in Rococo style. The abbey was partly destroyed in the Swedish invasion of Poland, and soon afterwards was rebuilt, with a new library. Further destruction took place during the Bar Confederation, when Polish rebels turned the abbey into their fortress.
In 1816, Austrian authorities liquidated the abbey, and in 1821-1826, it was the seat of the Bishop of Tyniec, Grzegorz Tomasz Ziegler. The monks, however, did not return to the abbey until 1939, and in 1947, remodelling of the neglected complex was initiated. In 1968, the Church of St. Peter and Paul was once again named the seat of the abbot. The church itself consists of a Gothic presbytery and a Baroque main nave. Several altars were created by an 18th-century Italian sculptor Francesco Placidi. The church also has a late Baroque pulpit by Franciszek Jozef Mangoldt.