Welcome to the New Green Vault at Dresden Palace.
The Green Vault is one of Europe’s oldest museums. It was the first princely treasury to be opened to visitors some three hundred years ago. But the name Green Vault is much older than the museum. It originally referred to a series of rooms on the ground floor of the palace at the end of the sixteenth century. The nickname derived from the fact that some architectural features were painted green. The official name used by the electoral administration was the Privy Custody, and the inaccessible vault long served as Saxony's State Treasury. Between 1723 and 1729, August the Strong transformed and extended those rooms, which are right underneath today’s New Green Vault, into a masterpiece of late Baroque interior design. Since then, the treasures he had inherited and acquired have been put on display in eight exhibition spaces. It was the largest collection of its kind – and miraculously, it has survived into the present largely intact.
The exhibition rooms were badly damaged during the Second World War – even partially destroyed. But after extensive restoration, they were re-opened to the public on the ground floor of the palace in September 2006.
The works of art themselves were moved out to Königstein Fortress for safe-keeping during the Second World War. In 1945, they were removed to Moscow and Leningrad as trophies of war by the Red Army, but returned to Dresden in 1956.
In the Historic Green Vault today, the treasures combine with the architecture to create a breath-taking synthesis of the arts. And in the New Green Vault, which was opened in 2004, you can now view the highlights of the collection up close and in the round: Here, pride of place is given to the beauty and splendour of each individual work of art.
Let me conclude by wishing you an eventful and enjoyable visit, as you explore masterpieces from more than two centuries of priceless art!
