Gottfried Semper Denkmal

The Gottfried Semper Monument honors the influential architect Gottfried Semper and stands on the Brühl Terrace in Dresden's Inner Old Town. This neoclassical statue was erected in 1892 to a design by the renowned sculptor Johannes Schilling. The life-size bronze figure shows Semper in a suit and overcoat, holding a partly rolled-up architectural drawing. He stands on a console decorated with lion heads, which rests on a plinth of pale red Lysekil granite more than five feet high. A bronze plaque with the name of the man portrayed is mounted on the front of the plinth. The monument was funded by the Association of German Architects' and Engineers' Societies, since the city and the Kingdom of Saxony provided no funds because of Semper's political past. The statue came through the 1945 air raids undamaged and is now a protected landmark. You can see the monument on the street Brühlscher Garten, right next to the entrance to the Dresden Fortress Museum and a flight of steps leading up to Georg-Treu-Platz.