Saxony has helped to write many a chapter of German cultural history. The composers Heinrich Schutz, Johann Sebastian Bach, Carl Maria von Weber, Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy,

Robert Schumann, Richard Wagner and Richard Strauss lived, worked and performed famous pieces for the first time here. Today the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, the Dresden Staatskapelle, the Semper Opera in Dresden and Leipzig’s St. Thomas Choir are internationally renowned, as are the conductor Kurt Masur and the trumpeter Ludwig Guttler. The state boasts a wide variety of museums: The Green Vault in Dresden displays the exquisitely crafted treasures accumulated by the Saxon electors, especially Augustus II the Strong (1670-1733); the Old Masters Gallery (with Raphael’s “Sistine Madonna”) and the New Masters Gallery both house outstanding art collections.

Also worthy of special mention are the lace museum in Plauen, the automobile museum in Zwickau, the museum of industry in Chemnitz, the mineralogical collection in Freiberg, the Lessing Museum in Kamenz, and the Sorbian Museum in Bautzen, the center of the Lusatian Sorbs, a Slavic minority. Saxony has a wealth of magnificent palaces and elaborately landscaped parks and gardens, most of them dating from the Baroque period. Notable examples, In addition to the Dresden Zwinger, are Moritzburg Palace, Rammenau Palace, the moated Klaffenbach Palace, Pillnitz Palace and Pillnitz Park. Other tourist attractions include the “Silver Route” in the Ore Mountains and the “Saxon Wine Route” as well as festivals such as the Dresden Music Festival, the International dixieland Festival and the Elbe Slope Festival in Dresden, the Karl May Festival in Radebeul, and the encounters” days of culture in Chemnitz.