DE LEIPZIG À DRESDE, SUR LES PAS DE L'HISTOIRE SAXONNE

Day 1: If we were to take history in the opposite direction, the starting point of this itinerary would obviously be the Nikolaikirche. As a symbol church in Leipzig, it was from its benches, where prayers for peace were held every Monday evening in early autumn 1989, including a certain October 9, that the libertarian, popular and pacifist uprising against the GDR regime quickly grew in scale, to the point of taking all East German citizens with it, and the fall of the Berlin Wall on the following November 9. Walking in the footsteps of the pacifist revolution inevitably also leads to Augustusplatz. You can spend hours on this emblematic square located at the entrance to the historic heart. It is home to the opera house, the Gewandhaus concert hall and the university. It has always been a strategic gathering place. Between October and early November 1989, tens of thousands and then more than 200,000 East German citizens gathered here several times a week to calmly demand their ideal of freedom, with a simple cry from the heart for this message so strong in symbolism: "Wir sind das Volk! (We are the people!).

Day 2: On this second day, allow yourself to go back in time even further. Take the tram south of the city and then go to the foot of the Völkerschlachtdenkmal. This 300,000-ton monument carved from granite, 91 metres high and 126 metres wide at its base, offers a breathtaking view of Leipzig and its surroundings from its summit. It was built between 1898 and 1913 to commemorate the Battle of the Nations. It was in fact in the Saxon metropolis that the Russian-Prussian alliance, with the help of Austrian and Swedish soldiers, had routed the Napoleonic army. A few days of bloody fighting, from 16 to 19 October 1813, which had engaged a total of some 600,000 soldiers. More than 100,000 of them lost their lives or were seriously injured. A typhus outbreak decimated Leipzig in the aftermath. The city then lost one tenth of its population.... The monument of the Battle of the Nations is an essential place to visit to relive local history. You can spend a day discovering its construction secrets, the park and the basin that surround it, and of course, visiting the rooms of its museum, Forum 1813.

Day 3: After looking back on two significant events in Leipzig's past, we are now heading south-east to Saxony. Direction Dresden, the administrative capital of the Land, just over an hour's drive or train ride away. The city was founded more than 800 years ago on the foundations of a Slavic fishing village. A medieval city with flourishing trade, it is now known as the "Florence of the Elbe" and became the official residence of the Dukes, Princes and Kings of Saxony (Frederick-August I, among others) from the 15th century until the eve of the First World War, and the seat of power for the Wettin dynasty. During this long period, the monarchs had prestigious Renaissance and Baroque buildings built on the heights of the river, primarily their castle (Residenzschloss), but also the Zwinger. Architectural jewels, intimately linked to the European influence of the city until the 19th century, which absolutely must be taken the time to discover with a quiet pace.

Day 4: While Dresden's cultural aura is undeniable, its history cannot be evoked without taking an interest in the drama it experienced during the Second World War. Bombarded by British and American air forces during two days of intense raids, from 13 to 15 February 1945, the pearl of the Elbe recorded between 40,000 and 50,000 victims, and suddenly metamorphosed into a huge field of ruins.... We must remember this painful episode to appreciate even more the way in which the people of Dresden have managed to get up again to begin a long reconstruction. Reduced to ashes, the city was only able to recover its former splendour after the German Reunification, when restoration work of a rarely seen scale, financed in part by private donations, was undertaken to rebuild its many damaged buildings: the Frauenkirche in particular, an 18th century Baroque masterpiece by George Bähr, which was rebuilt in the same way between 1994 and 2005. If you only have to visit one monument in Dresden, it must be this one!