The Japanisches Palais in Dresden is a building with a fascinating history, a cultural institution of the first order and the home of famous Dresden art treasures. Indeed, this palace played a major role in Dresden during the Baroque period. It was here that August the Strong (1670 – 1733) planned to realise his dream of creating a ‘porcelain palace’. The roofs, the interior décor, in fact practically everything was to be made of porcelain. However, the full-scale vision of the ‘porcelain palace’ was never completed. From 1721 onwards it accommodated first the Royal Kunstkammer, later the Porzellansammlung and from 1785 the classical sculptures, the coin collection and the electoral library. The curious Moritzburg Feather Room was part of the original interior, as were also the tapestries after designs by Raphael that are now held in the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister. Since 1954 the Japanisches Palais has been home to the State Museum for Pre-History. The museum restored the building to use after its complete destruction in the Second World War. Today the building also houses the Senckenberg Collection and the Ethnographical Museum. Since 2009 the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden have held major guest exhibitions in this extraordinary edifice.
Museum: Japanese PalaceCity: Dresden
Country: Germany
Address: Palaisplatz 11
Website: http://www.skdmuseum.de/en/museums-institutions/japanisches-palais/