Altmarkt
You start on the oldest square in Dresden, a large rectangle of about 130 by 100 metres that was laid out on purpose when the town was founded. It shows up in records as circulus in 1370, as margt in 1400, as ring in 1410 and as forum in 1452. It only became the Altmarkt, the old market, after a first expansion of the city around 1550 created a newer market by the Frauenkirche, the Neumarkt.
Look around and you read Dresden's twentieth century in the facades. Most of the historic buildings were destroyed in the Second World War; only the Kreuzkirche beside the square, for centuries the most important church in the city, was rebuilt. The west and east sides went up again in the 1950s in a style meant to continue the baroque cityscape, while the north side got something quite different: the modernist Kulturpalast, a freestanding block that broke with those plans. After 1990 two newer buildings closed the south side, and the paving and street furniture were redone by 2009.
Small details tell of the medieval town. Until the eighteenth century an open channel of the Kaitzbach stream ran along the south and west sides, mainly to have water at hand for fighting fires, later also for trades and cleaning. A town hall is first mentioned here in 1380. And every year the square hosts the Striezelmarkt, held since 1434 and one of the oldest Christmas markets in the world.
Spend ten minutes taking in the contrast between the rebuilt baroque lines and the Kulturpalast, then walk 350 metres, about five minutes, to the Neumarkt and the Frauenkirche.
