Dresden Castle

From the narrow street on which it stands, Dresden Castle is unlike the usual image of a castle, perhaps because there’s not much perspective to view it from. But the exquisite carvings and scale do justice to it somewhat. However, from the inside, it’s a different story altogether. The seat of Saxon Royalty from the early 13th century, this building too has been rebuilt to resemble the original structure which depicted a mix of Baroque, Renaissance and Classical architectural styles. The grandeur of the castle lies in the Green Vault, a set of rooms which possibly house Europe’s largest collection of royal art, artefacts and jewellery. Surprisingly, the treasure survived the intense bombing during World War II. The collection includes the massive Dresden Green Diamond, an extremely rare 41 carat green diamond and a beautiful tableau called Aurangazeb’s Court using miniature Meissen porcelain figures studded with lavish gold and precious stones.