Moritzmonument, Dresden

The Moritzmonument stands on the outer wall of the Jungfernbastei in Dresden, at the north-eastern corner of the city’s old fortifications. It marks the eastern end of the Brühl Terrace where the Terrassenufer meets Hasenberg. Created in 1555 by the sculptor Hans Walther, this six-metre-high sandstone relief is Dresden’s oldest surviving monument and the first ever raised to a Wettin ruler. The relief shows Kurfürst Moritz handing the Saxon electoral sword to his brother August. Behind Moritz the figure of Death holds an hourglass, while the two electors’ wives appear on either side with their coats of arms: Agnes of Hesse in widow’s dress and Anna of Denmark in fashionable court gown. Above them the Holy Trinity is carved—God the Father with a globe, Christ as the Man of Sorrows with the cross, and the Holy Spirit as a dove. Originally placed on the Hasenberg Bastion to celebrate the progress of the city’s new defences, the monument was moved twice before settling in its present position in 1895. A painted version of the relief, recorded in a 1591 drawing by Zacharias Wehme, once showed the figures in gold and colour. The original stonework was replaced by a copy in 2000 and the original later moved to the Kasematten under the Brühl Terrace. After flood damage in 2013 it was conserved and now forms part of the permanent exhibition in the Kurfürstensaal of Dresden Residenzschloss.