Kreuzkirche church in Dresden

Kreuzkirche Church, located on Altmarkt Square in Dresden, in eastern Germany, is the city’s main evangelical church. Kreuzkirche is the largest church in Saxony, its building has a capacity of 3,000 seats.

The first Romanesque church building stood on this site at the end of the 12th century. It was the only temple of a young merchant settlement; it bore the name of St. Nicholas, the patron saint of sailors and merchant people. After the bride of Margrave Meissen Henry III of Austria, the Austrian Princess Constance von Babenberg donated to the church a relic of the Holy Cross (a piece of the cross on which Jesus Christ was crucified), the church of St. Nicholas was renamed the Church of the Holy Cross. From this name, over time, only the word “Cross” (German: “Kreuz”) has survived, so today the church is called – Kreuzkirche, literally – “church of the Cross”.

The history of this temple is very dramatic. Throughout its history, the Kreuzkirche building has undergone five times destruction, and each time it was rebuilt in a new look. Continue reading →