Apart from the Frauenkirche and the Semper Opera House, no other building is as famous worldwide as the Dresden Zwinger. The various buildings with extensive gardens are considered a synthesis of the arts consisting of architecture, sculpture and painting, designed by the architect Matthäus Daniel Pöppelmann and the sculptor Balthasar Permoser. The name Zwinger dates back to the Middle Ages and referred to a part of the fortress between the outer and inner fortress walls. It never had this function – but the name remained. After its destruction in the Second World War, the Zwinger was rebuilt in the 1950s and 1960s. Since then, it has housed a picture gallery, the Mathematical-Physical Salon and a porcelain collection.
