Waldschlösschen

The Waldschlösschen at Radeberger Straße 60 is a neo-Gothic hunting lodge built by the Italian Count Camillo Marcolini, chamberlain to Elector Frederick Augustus III, on the grounds of the Posernsche Kugelgießerei. After the Count had a model estate with outbuildings built at today's Bautzner Straße 96, he had the Waldschlösschen built primarily for his Scottish wife Maria Anna O'Kelly in the then-modern English style. It was built between 1785 and 1790 by Johann Daniel Schade. From 1829, a tavern was operated there.

The building was converted into a residential house in the first half of the 20th century. After standing empty for years, visibly decaying, and with no single prospective buyer found in June 2008, the next auction on June 2, 2009, ended with 10 bidders and a sale for 214,000 Euros to a private individual. Currently (as of Nov. 2013), the listed building is being renovated, and office spaces are planned to be created within it.

The Societätsbrauerei zu Dresden stock association built a large brewery on the land acquired in 1836, which was inaugurated on March 26, 1838. Waldschlößchen beer was exported not only to Berlin and Leipzig but also to Brazil from 1855. The pub attached to the brewery, along with its beer garden, developed into a major gastronomic attraction in Dresden during this period.

In the GDR, beer was brewed in the Brauhaus until the early eighties, after which only non-alcoholic beverages were produced. During the Wende (turnaround) period, the operation closed and was reopened in 1997 as a guesthouse brewery after renovations and extensions.

The area of the Brauhaus and the section of Bautzner Straße running below it owe their enduring special attractiveness to the so-called Waldschlösschenblick (Waldschlösschen View). Along with the Canaletto View, it is one of Dresden's most famous panoramic views. The right-bank widening of the Elbe valley beginning at this point, the curve of the riverbed below, and the distant panorama of Dresden's Old Town with the Frauenkirche form a harmonious whole. This sight has been praised repeatedly in literature for centuries, although the historic Waldschlösschenblick has no longer existed since about 1838 due to the development of the area with the Waldschlößchenbrauerei.

From 1842, with the opening of the viewing terrace (south terrace of the Brauhaus am Waldschlösschen), the term was transferred to the view available from there. Since this historic view is also no longer available due to tree growth and the widening of Bautzner Straße in the 1930s, a pavilion was built on the south side of Bautzner Straße in 1936.

The fascinating view is possible because the Elbe-facing side of the street remained undeveloped for a length of about 300 meters at this point. In 1908, the city purchased this area, known as Waldschlösschenwiesen, to ensure, after Marcolini's death, that the area would not be built upon.

The Waldschlösschenwiese belongs to the Dresden Elbe meadows and is the part with the steepest slope. In the immediate vicinity, the Waldschlösschenwiese marks a wide point of the Elbe meadows, which narrow upstream due to the Dresden Elbe slopes and downstream due to the inner-city development. It also forms an offshoot of the Elbe slopes. A part of its area is occupied by the Waldschlößchenbrücke, which in turn now offers numerous additional viewpoints of Dresden's Old Town.