Christmas markets in Dresden reviews. Christmas market in Dresden. What to eat at the market
Colorful winter brochures of travel companies invite you to pre-Christmas Europe. Tourists are lured by photographs of old town squares at night. On them are the mysteriously illuminated facades of medieval buildings with snow-covered roof slopes, in the distance there is a dim silhouette of a church against the background of barely noticeable outlines of blue mountains, and in the center there are multi-colored lights of a Christmas tree, from which numerous narrow streets of a wooden fair town radiate.
Fascinated by these pictures, this year we finally went three weeks before Christmas on a short trip to the most famous fairs in Germany and France. But, alas, winter Europe We were greeted by torrential rain, which followed us all 650 km. paths through ancient German Rothenburg to the French capital of Christmas - Strasbourg and fabulous Colmar. The impressions from the trip were contradictory, and the pictures taken from under the umbrella came out, for the most part, depressingly colorless and boring, not at all like those bright photographs that adorn the pages of tourist brochures.
There was still hope that snow would still fall before the end of the year and we would have time to visit at least our neighboring German Saxony to feel the real atmosphere of Christmas markets. However, we made our last attempt to see a winter fairy tale on the pre-Christmas weekend under the same dull gray sky and annoying light rain.
And yet, Dresden, which we knew well and traveled far and wide, unexpectedly surprised us this time, and we received a lot of new impressions from the trip. And evening photographs of the oldest Christmas market in Germany can also be suitable for advertising brochures (after all, we can remain silent about the fact that they were filmed in a drizzle - still, let's hope that next year we will all be luckier with the weather).
Christmas in Catholic and Protestant Europe is celebrated annually on December 24th. On the fourth Sunday before Christmas, begins Advent- a time of waiting and preparation for the future holiday (this year the beginning of Advent was on November 27). On the first Sunday of Advent, or a few days before it, Christmas markets open in many European cities.
By the way, in German Christmas is pronounced “Weinachten.” (Weihnachten, from weihen – to sanctify and die Nacht – night), literally - “sanctified nights”, in the plural, since the preparation for Christmas has long lasted for four weeks of Advent.
Christmas market or “Weinachtsmarkt” ( Weihnachtsmarkt), usually carried out on central square in everyone, even small town, and in big cities V different places Several holiday markets operate simultaneously.
Dresden's main Christmas market is called Striezelmarkt ( Striezelmarkt) and opens on the central square of the city Altmarkt ( Altmarkt, Old Market) annually on the Thursday before the first Sunday of Advent. This is one of the oldest fairs in Germany, which is organized for the 577th time. The first such fair opened here on Christmas Eve 1434 with the permission of the Elector of Saxony, Frederick II, and lasted only one day. Initially, only meat was sold here, but the demand for food for the Christmas table in last days Advent fast was so high that the fair gradually grew, turning into a universal market, and later also an exhibition of folk crafts and amusement park.
Currently, more than 240 traders, bakers, woodworkers and owners of various attractions participate in the Dresden fair. On the square, a whole city is built from wooden kiosks with brightly lit shop windows, inventively decorated with Christmas balls, garlands, pine wreaths, toys and sweets and souvenirs sold here. On the roofs of the kiosks, puppet figurines act out biblical, fairy tale scenes and scenes from folk life. Many of the figures on the roofs move, drawing the attention of guests to the production, and at the same time to the display case filled with holiday goods.
The main production depicts the shepherds and wise men (wise men) who came to worship the newborn Jesus, laid in a manger.
According to the New Testament, the wise men who came from the East were led to the birthplace of Jesus by a guiding star. Many white, yellow and red stars glow in the windows of stalls throughout the market. Hanging specially shaped glowing stars with 17 rays is also part of Christmas traditions. Such stars are called Gernhut stars ( Herrnhuter Adventsstern), named after the Saxon village of Gernhut , located on the border with the Czech Republic.
In fact, the origins of this traditional Christmas decoration are not entirely German, as its English name indicates. Moravian Star.” Its history began in 1722, when several Protestant communities, followers of the Moravian Church, moved from Moravia to Saxony, fleeing religious oppression during the re-Catholicization of Bohemia. This is how the settlement of the Guards arose ( Ochranov), in German Gernhut ( Herrnhut, from the motto " unter des Herrn Hut" - “under God's protection”). The Protestant community of the Herngut brothers cared about the education of their children, who studied in boarding schools. In one of these boarding schools, during mathematics and geometry lessons, the teacher “invented” a star to introduce students to Archimedean solids, based on one of which - rhombicuboctahedron, and this original polyhedron was constructed. The stars decorated the rooms of the boarding school, and all the guests liked them so much that they soon spread throughout Saxony and abroad. Now Herngut stars are hung on Christmas Day in all Protestant churches, including the main Dresden Protestant Church of the Holy Cross ( Kreuzkirche), whose huge dark bell tower, with illuminated yellow crosses, dominates the market square.
In the center of the Dresden market there is a spruce tree decorated with luminous garlands and the world's largest wooden Christmas carousel pyramid ( Weihnachtspyramide), carved by master carvers from the Ore Mountains.
For its size, the Dresden Pyramid is listed in the Guinness Book of Records. The blades of its winged wheel, raised almost 15 meters high, are visible from any point in the area. Visually, the brightly lit pyramid seems even higher than the huge bell-shaped dome of the central city cathedral, Frauenkirche, towering in the distance.
On six floors of the rotating pyramid there are wooden figurines of traditional Christmas characters: a snowman, a nutcracker, a miner, a chimney sweep, a prune man and many other original figurines.
For several centuries, such wooden figurines have been made by skilled craftsmen from the Ore Mountains region ( Erzgebirgskreis), located on the border with the Czech Republic. Initially, this was a mining area where tin and silver were mined, but when the reserves of these minerals dried up in the 17th century, former miners began to look for new sources of income, and began producing a variety of wooden toys - nutcrackers ( Nussknacker), smokers ( Räuchermännchen), arched candle candelabra ( Schwibbogen) and pyramid-carousels.
Over time, these wooden products became an integral part of folk traditions, and are still one of the favorite decorations of German homes. Dresden even has a private Nativity Pyramid Museum located in an alley Muenzgasse opposite the Frauenkirche cathedral, where about 120 masterpieces made since 1820 are collected.
By the way, such rotating pyramids are now made to decorate not only winter holidays. During one of our trips to fabulous Mayson, located just 30 km. from Dresden, we bought a wonderful white Easter pyramid, on three rotating floors of which spring backups of the Rudnogorsk Christmas figures - hares, chickens, horses, cows and other inhabitants of the rural household yard are placed on the green lawn :)
But let’s return to the Christmas characters, the most famous of which, undoubtedly, is the nutcracker - an ugly, large-mouthed man, a character in Hoffmann’s fairy tale “The Nutcracker and the Mouse King,” written in 1816 and made famous throughout the world thanks to the music of P.I. Tchaikovsky. The prototype of the nutcracker were the dolls that Rudnogorsk miners had been carving out of wood in the evenings “for the soul.” The recognizable Dresden version of the Nutcracker, familiar to us from many illustrations, was created in the 1870s by master Friedrich Wilhelm Füchtner from the town of Seiffen ( Seiffen). He dressed the figurine in a cavalry costume and placed a crown on its head that looked like a miner's hat.
The result is a mysterious figurine that represents a bizarre interweaving of traditions and fairy tales: a miner’s doll-caricature of evil officials and martinets, which turned into a noble prince from Marzipan Castle, bewitched by the evil queen Mouseilda, saving the princess and fearlessly fighting on Christmas night with the seven-headed mouse king.
By the way, in the “homeland” of the Nutcracker, in Seiffen, his largest four-meter wooden figure was installed, as you guessed it, also registered by the enterprising Saxons in the Guinness Book of Records.
Looking at and studying all this magical decoration of the Christmas market is certainly useful, but it’s probably worth looking inside the stalls to get something to eat and warm up.
As at other German fairs, at Strietzelmarkt there is food for every taste and stomach: warm drinks are offered everywhere - mulled wine, grog, rum punch, and from “snacks” - fried sausages and “potato frank” ( Kartoffel Puffer) – potato pancakes with apple mousse, as well as an innumerable variety of pastries and sweets - baked apples in sugar glaze, candied nuts, gingerbread, traditional Dresden stola and “pflaumentoffel” ( Plaumentoffel) – figurines of chimney sweeps made from prunes and almonds (according to German folk signs, a chimney sweep brings happiness), and much more.
The main thing is not to get carried away and not interfere too much with all this deliciousness. They say that baked apples in chocolate glaze go well with mulled wine, and fried sausages are best enjoyed with dark Christmas beer.
Moreover, there is nowhere to rush - the Dresden fair is open for four weeks of Advent every day from 10 am to 21 pm.
By the way, they say that mulled wine (“glüwein”, Glühende Wein- hot, flaming wine), - red wine with spices, cinnamon, cloves, honey and the addition of a small amount of rum, cognac or liqueur for flavor - is one of the most powerful anti-cold remedies, also helping against stomach and viral infections. So, this is just that rare case when business is combined with pleasure. Unless, of course, you overdo it in treatment :)
While adults are sipping strong drinks, children will also not be bored; the Striezelmarkt provides a variety of entertainment for them, compactly collected on one area in the corner market square.
In the Prune Man's House, professional craftsmen and children will make a variety of Christmas gifts for parents and grandparents. Nearby, in the gnomes' house, there is an exhibition and cartoons are shown. After this, children can look into a fairy-tale house, where an old master will show them how wooden figurines are created, and at the same time tell them a fairy-tale story.
A little further, under the guidance of Dresden bakers, children can try their hand at making Christmas pastries or decorate the famous “Pfefferküchen” - honey gingerbread cakes coated with egg white on top, which are made in the town of Pulsnitz, called the “gingerbread capital of Saxony”. After cooking lessons, in the neighboring puppet theater you can watch a small fun show featuring funny puppet characters.
Here on the site there is a huge pre-Christmas children's calendar. , made in the shape of a fairytale castle. Children's calendar (Adventskalender) is a traditional attribute of German Christmas. This calendar has 24 windows, the number of December days before Christmas, behind which are hidden small gifts that bring joy to the child every holiday.
Next to the Advent calendar there is a children's room Railway, on which you can ride through a fairytale forest, where numerous heroes of famous children's fairy tales hide.
And of course, what fair would be complete without a carousel decorated with bright lamps and decorated like a circus tent, to which there is always a long line of people wishing to ride galloping wooden horses, accompanied by the ancient melody of a mechanical organ.
For those who want to escape the noisy bustle for a while, relax and at the same time look at the glowing fairy-tale market town from above, a small Ferris wheel is installed in the opposite corner of the fair. Even the smallest guests of the fair are not afraid to ride in the booth of a wheel decorated with Christmas illumination.
The Striezelmarkt exhibits numerous products from craftsmen from different towns in Saxony, in which folk traditions and skills are carefully preserved: wood carving, ceramics production, lace weaving, leather making.
As in ancient times, handicrafts are sold at the exhibition - wooden toys, collectible sets of figurines, ceramic dishes, blown glass lamps, lace or advent wreaths.
Sellers demonstrate their skills to guests right at the kiosks, gathering crowds of interested spectators.
The traditional Dresden Christmas cake “stollen” is prepared in the bakery pavilions. Interestingly, the Saxon Christmas cake was originally called "striezel" ( Striezel). At first it was a Lenten pastry made from water, oats and flour. In order to gain the right to add milk and butter to it, Duke Albrecht of Saxony and his brother Ernst had to ask permission from the Pope himself in 1474. The fame of the pie prepared according to the new recipe quickly spread throughout the area, glorifying Dresden cooks. Stritzel was in especially high demand during the pre-Christmas days. The name of the Dresden Christmas market Strietzelmarkt comes from the name of this pie.
Over time, the pie that gave the name to the fair was transformed into “stollen” ( Stollen) - an oblong cake interspersed with raisins, marzipans, nuts and candied oranges, sprinkled with powdered sugar. Miners from the Ore Mountains often took this pie with them for lunch in the adit (I still think that in those days it was a leaner pastry), from which, apparently, the new name was formed.
And although the fair has retained its old name, its festive celebrations are dedicated to stollen, which is a mandatory Christmas pastry and the main symbol of Dresden cuisine, and which is sold here in literally every kiosk.
I must add that of all the baked goods, I personally prefer Austrian apple strudel ( Strudel), no less popular in all German-speaking countries . It's a shame why they didn't name some fair after him? :)
In the evening, already leaving the fair, we fortunately stayed for a while , watching the solemn procession of more than 500 members of various mining unions, dressed in historical uniforms. It is interesting that although the mines in Saxony have been abandoned for more than a century, mining traditions continue to live, not only in the wooden figurines that are a mandatory decoration of the Christmas pyramid, but also in folk songs and melodies, customs, and language. Dozens of public unions continue to take care of the preservation of old traditions by organizing concerts, shows, competitions and costume parades, which are also included in the program of the Dresden fair.
It's just a pity that because huge number those wishing to see the parade procession, to get into the first rows of spectators tightly lined up along a wide straight line Wilsdruffer Strasse, it was absolutely impossible. Maybe, the best place to watch the parade at this moment, there were cafe tables in the Altmarkt Gallery shopping center, where at the same time you could use your last chance to purchase the missing gifts for the Christmas tree.
However, during the Advent days, Dresden lives not only with the fair and the pre-holiday shopping fever. The windows of the halls of the museums and the Zwinger art gallery and other city museums and exhibition halls are illuminated.
Numerous Dresden churches host concerts of Christmas music - a night of organ music by candlelight in the Frauenkirche, Christmas melodies of the Striezelmarkt in Kreuzkirch, choir performances, Christmas carols.
And of course, one day in Dresden is not enough to be everywhere and see everything.
We only visited the Strietzelmarkt, the main Christmas market on the old square, but there are many other markets in the city along the famous “Christmas mile”, where it is also worth a walk to at least temporarily immerse yourself in the festive atmosphere of a cozy German Christmas, which cannot be spoiled even such an unprecedentedly warm and rainy European winter can.
Good afternoon, my dear tourists! I'm Andrey - your personal guide, driver, comrade. German Christmas has its own traditional symbols: pyramid, stollen, nutcrackers. The largest pyramid is located in Dresden. One of the main old traditions in this city is the opening of the Striezelmarkt Christmas market. This is the most important event in the life of Dresden residents and guests of the city. On the Altmarkt square the old market opens […]
Good afternoon, my dear tourists! I am your personal guide, driver, comrade.
German Christmas has its own traditional symbols: pyramid, stollen, nutcrackers. The largest pyramid is located in Dresden. One of the main ancient traditions in this city is the opening Christmas market Striezelmarkt. This is the most important event in the life of Dresden residents and guests of the city.
The old market has been open on Altmarkt Square since 1434. It is believed to be the oldest in the country. More than two hundred traders come here every year. Ancient traditions are honored here, and the people of Dresden carefully reproduce them anew every year. The products of folk craftsmen, skilled artisans, which can be found on Strietzelmarkt, are famous in all regions of Germany.
In the middle of the famous market stands a huge Christmas tree And Christmas pyramid (Weihnachtspyramide)- the largest in the world. Four symbolic figures are installed nearby: nutcracker (Nussknacker), miner, snowman and man made from prunes (Pflaumentoffel). All these are traditional attributes of German Christmas. In the center of the market square stands and advent calendar huge in size, made in the shape of a fairy tale palace. Cultural events are held here every day.
The Striezelmarkt market is open from 28.11 to 24.12.2012.
Opening hours: 10-21.00.
Frederick II- Saxon Duke - founded the Dresden market. He granted the city the privilege of holding a Christmas market. This happened in 1434. At first, the fair took only one day - Christmas Eve. Lent was ending, and merchants in the square were selling roasts. And then other types of goods appeared. Stritzel breads were the predecessors of the well-known stollen. Nowadays it’s hard to imagine German Christmas without stollen.
Striezel originally baked from oats, water and flour - these were lean breads. Duke Albrecht of Saxony and his brother Ernst They asked the Pope for his blessing to add butter and milk to this bread. Permission was received in 1474. Christmas bread became much tastier, and by 1500 all the housewives of Dresden began to come to the market for holiday baked goods. New ingredients were gradually added to the stritzel recipe: candied fruits, spices.
Gradually its composition completely changed. The new kind Christmas baking began to be called "Stollen". Now it has become a symbol of Dresden cuisine and German Christmas. They say that it got its name from the word adit. Miners from adits in the Ore Mountains took this bread with them to work.
Well, the market is called in the old fashioned way - Strietzelmarkt. In the 16th century there was a tradition to open a Christmas trade ringing bells. This festive ringing lasted for a week. In 1631, potters from Meissen began to come here with their goods. Since 1659, many traders from other German lands arrived at the fair.
Nowadays, the Striezelmarkt market is usually opened on the eve of the first Advent. Trading lasts until Christmas. The Dresden adit is still considered the main product at the fair. Sweet Christmas cupcakes are offered by various bakers. Each product has a special sign - a “golden seal” with the image of the Duke August the Strong. In 1730, this duke ordered the city bakers to bake a huge stollen bread for twenty-four thousand guests. The giant stollen weighed 1.8 tons!
The opening of the Striezelmarkt market these days begins with a tasting of stollen. The bakers of Dresden now prepare a huge pie every year and carry it from the Zwinger to the market.
Another symbol of the Dresden Christmas is the wooden carvings made by craftsmen from the Ore Mountains. In 1644, they first appeared at a holiday fair. The most famous of them is Nutcracker. Craftsmen have been carving such figures since the Middle Ages, but they became popular in the 18th century. The most famous nutcracker from Dresden was created in 1870 by master carver Wilhelm Friedrich Füchtner from Seiffen. Hoffmann's tale of the Nutcracker was written in 1816, and thanks to Tchaikovsky's ballet, the work gained worldwide fame. This fairy tale inspired Fuchtner to create a funny toy. The writer and composer Hoffmann visited Dresden more than once. He toured the city with an opera company; in 1813-17 he even lived here, near the old market square. Hoffmann also visited the Striezelmarkt.
Christmas pyramid- another traditional symbol of Dresden Christmas. This pyramid combines the principles of creating Christmas mangers and lamps with mining technology. The candles heat the air, causing the figures on different tiers of the pyramid to rotate.
Soviet stores used to sell such toys from the former GDR. And the first pyramid was created in 1780. Dresden Christmas Pyramid Museum located in the Muenzgasse lane near Frauenkirche. There you can see more than a hundred interesting pyramids.
Outside the Striezelmarkt market there are other smaller markets. They stretch from Prager Strasse through Altmarkt to the Neustadt district. Medieval Christmas market famous for its costumed performances, street artisans, musicians and buffoons. Known and market in the Buergerviertel quarter, located in the beautiful Baroque district of Neustadt.
IN cultural center Kunsthof There is also a Christmas market, where you can buy hand-made goods and get acquainted with modern art against the backdrop of the architecture of the Greenland era.
On Saturdays at 17.00, services with choral singing are held in the Kreuzkirche church, which is located next to the Striezelmarkt. During the pre-holiday period, services with music and Christmas concerts are held in many churches in Dresden and in the famous Kulturpalast concert hall.
I am inviting you!
Book a tour of Christmas Dresden and Germany
possible on the page
Best regards, your guide Andrey.
How do I save on hotels?
It’s very simple - look not only on booking. I prefer the search engine RoomGuru. He searches for discounts on Booking and 70 other booking sites simultaneously.
Dresden's main Christmas market boasts not only a solid history, but also excellent success among the townspeople. About 2.5 million people visit the Striezelmarkt every year.
As it was almost 600 years ago, Germany's oldest fair is held on the Altmarkt market square. About 200 traders from all over Saxony come to Dresden to sell their goods: traditional souvenirs and household items, Christmas decorations and food. The latter are of utmost importance in the history of the holiday.
Initially, the Striezelmarkt fair sold only products for the Christmas Eve feast. And the name of the market itself was given by the Christmas “strizel” - a braided braid with poppy seed or apple filling. The main event of the fair is also connected with it: the Stollenfest Christmas cake festival. A giant Christmas cake weighing about 2.5 tons is ceremoniously carried through the streets of the city. Then the royal court baker and the most beautiful girl holiday (Stollenmädchen) they cut it into pieces. Pieces of the pie are sold to fair guests, and the proceeds go to charity. But for free at the festival you can enjoy unique Baroque music performed live by Dresden chamber ensembles.
From November 27 to December 24, 2019, the legendary Dresdner Striezelmarkt, the oldest existing Christmas market in Germany, will be open in Dresden. In 2019 it will open on the Altmarkt for the 585th time. The fair will be decorated with the world's largest Christmas pyramid and a beautiful tree. And the traditional symbols of Christmas - the Snowman, the Miner and the Nutcracker - will be present next to the stage, on which a huge Advent calendar will be installed in the form of a fairy-tale castle. The Christmas tour to Dresden runs from 11/27/2019 to 12/24/2019 in the form of day excursion from Prague to Dresden. The excursion includes the services of a guide and driver, as well as thematic excursions with a guide to historical center Dresden and the Striezelmarkt Christmas market
- 8:30
- departure from Prague
On the way, the guide will tell you about the history of Dresden in the context of the story of Saxony and Germany (the duration of the excursion on the road to Dresden is 2 hours) - 10:30 - arrival in Dresden
- 10:30-12:30 - 2 hours hiking with a guide to the historical center of Dresden and the Striezelmarkt fair
- 12:30-17:30 - 5 hours of free time
- 17:30 - departure from Dresden
- 19:30 - arrival in Prague
December has come - the month when winter comes into its own. Expectation New Year's fairy tale lives in the heart of everyone, whether he is old or young, because adults are also children, only bigger ones... To ensure that the feeling of the holiday penetrates your soul, be sure to visit Germany, where at this time an atmosphere of magic and mystery reigns.
Dresden before Christmas
The whole country is preparing for Christmas: colorful garlands are hung on trees and building facades, houses are exquisitely decorated, and the fragrant smells of almond and ginger cookies, sweets, strudels and mulled wine can be heard from everywhere. In courtyards, in front of churches and in squares, Christmas trees and figurines of saints shimmering with multi-colored lights are installed, and entire compositions are created based on scenes from the Bible.
Striezelmarkt is Germany's oldest Christmas market.
But not only the streets are transformed at this time. Christmas is a family holiday, and the Germans sacredly honor their traditions, and therefore all New Year's rites and rituals are performed in every home. Four weeks before Christmas, many German families display a mistletoe wreath with four candles, each corresponding to one of the Sundays of the coming Christmas. On the first Sunday, the first candle in the wreath is symbolically lit; on the last Sunday, all four candles are lit - this is a harbinger that the holiday is already on the doorstep.
Kiosk with hot drinks and sausages
New Year's holidays in Germany are unthinkable without Christmas markets, because everyone needs to buy New Year's decorations, Christmas gifts and just souvenirs.
Kiosk with Christmas stollen
The Striezelmarkt, Germany's oldest Christmas market, was created back in 1434 by order of the Saxon Elector Frederick II. And although almost six hundred years have passed since its opening, the Christmas market in Dresden has not lost its magical charm today. It has its own smell and taste, which makes it different from other markets in Germany, and surprises visitors with the uniqueness and atmosphere of an approaching fairy tale.
Dresden. House-counter with traditional Christmas souvenirs.
An indispensable attribute of Christmas in Dresden is stollen (a special large-sized cupcake), which is ceremonially baked for this holiday. This has been a tradition since 1560, when Dresden bakers presented the king as a gift with a huge cupcake that 16 people could lift!
Christmas stollen.
The fair is located at the Old Market of Dresden, in front of the Church of St. Cross, turning the square into a kind of medieval town, where each little house-counter attracts visitors with its special product. You can spend many hours here looking for holiday gifts. The range of products offered is extremely wide.
Dresden. Christmas souvenirs.
First of all, these are traditional Christmas souvenirs: Christmas tree decorations, wooden toys, dolls, silver decorations, gold leaf angels, glassware and much more.
The most pleasant thing to do here is to walk with friends or family - entertainment on the Striezelmarkt is provided for every taste and age! This is a real fairy-tale holiday where lights sparkle, fun reigns, music plays, carousels spin, Christmas plays are given and, of course, sweets are sold!
Christmas Punch Kiosk
On every corner you can buy baked apples, glazed fruits, gingerbread and honey gingerbread "Lebkuchen", chocolate-covered fruits, sugar-fried almonds, walnuts, peanuts, and also treat yourself to a cup of hot mulled wine - a traditional Christmas drink.
Kiosk with hot Christmas drinks.
Having had a lot of fun listening to Christmas melodies, you want to get away from the hustle and bustle for a while and at the same time stay in the holiday. And then your feet naturally carry you to the Ferris wheel - the main attraction of the Striezelmarkt. From a bird's eye view, a breathtaking view of the fair opens up; the bustle and colorful tinsel of the festival remains below, and you fly upward towards the unknown - it is impossible to miss such sensations!
The Dresden Fair creates a festive mood.
The Dresden Fair not only offers lovely trinkets and sweets for the holiday, but also sets the mood. And even if you don’t like winter, you will feel absolutely happy these pre-Christmas days!
The anticipation of a New Year's fairy tale lives in the heart of everyone, be it old or young, because adults are also children, only bigger ones...
Dresden on the eve of Christmas
Photo report by Oksana Gorbachenko and Ruslana Vashchak
Dresden, Semperoper
About three weeks before Christmas in Europe, that same mystery begins, Christmas time, which is loved by local residents, and guests. Christmas markets are opening, so if you want to plunge into the atmosphere of Christmas Europe, the beginning of December is the right time for this, and the capital of Saxony, Dresden, is one of the attractive places.
Christmas trees are everywhere. On the second floor balcony of the Dresden Opera, in every courtyard, be it Royal Palace or a quiet street.
The sales season will be later, after the new year. Now people are ready to spend money buying gifts for themselves and their loved ones.
The traditional Christmas market Striezelmarkt takes place on Altmarkt Square. They sell a lot of live Christmas trees and Christmas tree decorations, gingerbread and mulled wine - glühwein.
The weather in Dresden in December is reminiscent of spring, and it often rains at this time. There are a lot of fresh flowers on the streets.
East Germany is still different from West Germany, life here is modest, but no less high quality. Good coffee, legendary bratwus - grilled sausages, excellent pastries, reasonable prices.
Altmarkt Galerie is one of the best shopping centers in Dresden, there are about two hundred branded clothing and shoe stores, perfume departments, watches, in the lower tier you can find sneakers that are not sold online.
Altmarkt Galerie has a wonderful Kamps bakery with fantastic Saxon custard donuts.
A walk through the old part of the city reveals its best facets. The legendary mosaic Fuerstenzug - Procession of the Princes - on Auguststrasse is impressive with its hundred-meter length and incredible history. 94 figures of dukes and kings decorate the northern wall of the stable yard; the mosaic consists of 24 thousand tile fragments of porcelain from the Meissen manufactory - durability that is not subject to wars and time.
Dresden Castle Residence or the Palace of the Saxon Kings is the oldest in the city. Now you can visit the Numismatic and Engraving rooms, thematic exhibitions of ancient and modern masters.
The misty Elbe, thanks to which Dresden is called the Florence of the North.
Zwinger - Zwinger is a beautiful complex in Dresden of four galleries, there are many museums, and the legendary Dresden Gallery is located on the site of a medieval fortress.
Bell Pavilion - Glockenspiel pavillon.
All of them are made of Meissen porcelain and survived the Second World War without damage. Chimes and 40 porcelain bells ring different melodies every 15 minutes in summer, less often in winter.
The Saxon character of the city of kings is definitely felt and not only in the architecture.