Terrace Bruehl

Night view of the terrace from the Carola Bridge

Bruhl Terrace ( Bruhl Terrace , German: Brühlsche Terrasse ) is the embankment of the Elbe River in the center of old Dresden , which extends for about half a kilometer between the Augustus Bridge (Augustusbrücke) and the Carola Bridge (Carolabrücke). Since the beginning of the XIX century has the nickname " balcony of Europe ." The famous view from the opposite bank of the Elbe (the so-called Canaletto panorama) opens onto the Bruhl terrace.

The terrace was originally erected as part of the Dresden fortifications in the 16th century. The name of the terrace goes back to Count von Bruhl , by whose order Johann Christoph Kneffel erected numerous structures on the terrace ( Bruhl Gallery, Bruhl Library , Belvedere , Bruhl Palace and Brunetti Garden ). After the conversion of Bruhl, the terrace lost its military significance.

In 1814, Prince Nikolai Repnin-Volkonsky , who was the Governor-General of Saxony after its defeat at the Battle of the Peoples , ordered the terrace to be accessible to the public, for which, from the side of the palace square, the architect G. Tormayer built a wide front staircase decorated with two sandstone lions the work of Christian Gottlieb Kuhn . In 1820, the Terrassenufer promenade was built under the terrace. To improve access to the terrace, passages were made to it from Münzgasse in 1848 and from Georg Troy-Platz in 1890–1894.

In the late XIX - early XX centuries, the terrace was reconstructed: the original buildings of Bruhl were replaced by modern buildings, which today determine the view of the Old Town from the side of the Elbe: Secundogenitur, the Academy of Arts and Albertinum. In 1906, the House of the Estate (Landtag) was built. In 1945, the Landtag building was destroyed by fire. After a partial reconstruction, it housed the Land Office for the Protection of Architectural Monuments, the Museum of Mineralogy and Geology, as well as the German Photo Library. Currently, the Supreme Land Court of Free Saxony is located here.