Semperoper

The Theatre Square opposite the Zwinger and Augustus Bridge is dominated by the Semperoper of the Semper Opera House. The beautifully constructed yellowish-black building has a lovely portal which is topped by Dionysos, the Greek God of theatre. On the portal are also depicted some of history’s greatest creative minds such as Euripides, Sophocles, Shakespeare, Goethe, Schiller, Moliere and many more. Home of the Saxon State Opera, it was one of Europe’s leading opera houses and hosted the premieres of works by such icons as Richard Wagner and Richard Strauss. It was built in the mid 19th century, destroyed by fire thirty years later, rebuilt again in 1878 only to be devastated by the bombings. It took 40 more years to be built again exactly like the original, and in a fitting tribute, it with a performance of Weber’s Der Freischitz (The Marksman) which was being staged before the destruction.