Theaterplatz is the monumental heart of Dresden's Baroque city, flanked by the Semperoper on one side, the Zwinger on the other, and the Hofkirche and Residenzschloss completing the ensemble. No other German city has a public space this consistently Baroque in character, and even after the near-total destruction of 1945 and the decades of reconstruction that followed, the square retains its scale and coherence.
The equestrian statue of Augustus the Strong (1736) stands at the north end of the square, cast in bronze by Ludwig Wiedemann and gilded to make a point. The Semperoper's facade is the architectural centrepiece — one of the finest opera house exteriors in the world, with its arcaded loggia and the double staircase to the main entrance. In winter the square is occupied by a market; in spring and summer, when it is free of events, it is one of the best places to sit and take in the improbable scale of what Dresden rebuilt.