Zwinger is a luxurious palace and park ensemble in Dresden and one of the most famous art galleries in the world. A complex of baroque-style palaces was built in the first half of the 18th century by a famous Saxon architect Matthäus Pöppelmann. The special appeal of Zwinger, according to his design, had to be a fountain in the courtyard of the ensemble.
Art gallery of old masters (Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister) is located in Zwinger. The local prince electorate and King of Poland, Augustus the Strong started collecting paintings in the 18th century. Today you can see paintings by Raphael, Rubens, Dürer, Velázquez, Titian, Giorgione, Rembrandt and many other great masters of the past in the halls. Many of these priceless canvases were accidentally discovered by Soviet soldiers in 1945 in one of the abandoned mines near Dresden.