Wikipedia
The Zwinger (, ) is a palace in the eastern German city of Dresden, built in Rococo style and designed by court architect Matthäus Daniel Pöppelmann. It served as the orangery, exhibition gallery and festival arena of the Dresden Court.
The location was formerly part of the Dresden fortress of which the outer wall is conserved. The name derives from the German word Zwinger (an enclosed killing ground in front of a castle or city gate); it was for the cannons that were placed between the outer wall and the major wall. The Zwinger was not enclosed until the Neoclassical building by Gottfried Semper called the Semper Gallery was built on its northern side.
Today, the Zwinger is a museum complex that contains the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister (Old Masters Picture Gallery), the Dresden Porcelain Collection (Porzellansammlung) and the Mathematisch-Physikalischer Salon (Royal Cabinet of Mathematical and Physical Instruments).
Zwinger may refer to:
- Zwinger (Dresden), a stately building and park area with museums in Dresden
- Zwinger (fortification), part of a medieval castle or town fortification
- Zwinger (Goslar), a battery tower in the town fortifications of Goslar
- Zwinger (Münster), part of the town fortifications of Münster
- Zwinger, part of the Rostock fortifications
- Zwinger, the German name for an animal enclosure
- Zwinger (Brennberg), part of the municipality of Brennberg, county of Regensburg, Bavaria
- Zwinger (Michelsneukirchen), part of the municipality of Michelsneukirchen, county of Cham, Bavaria
- Gustav Philipp Zwinger (1779–1819), German artist, etcher and lithographer
- Johannes Zwinger (1634–1696), Swiss theologian and high school teacher
- Joseph Zwinger (1705–1772), German Jesuit priest and high school teacher
- Thorsten Zwinger (born 1962), German artist
- Theodor Zwinger (1533–1588), Swiss physician and Christian humanist scholar
A Zwinger is an open area between two defensive walls that is used for defensive purposes. Zwingers were built in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Period to improve the defence of castles and town walls. The term is German and usually left untranslated. However, it is sometimes rendered as "outer courtyard" presumably referring to the subsequent role of a Zwinger as a castle's defences became redundant and it was converted into a palace or schloss, however, this belies its original purpose as a form of killing ground for the defence. The word is linked with zwingen, "to force", perhaps because the Zwinger forced an enemy to negotiate it before assaulting the main defensive line.
The Zwinger in Goslar is a battery tower that is part of the fortifications of the old imperial city of Goslar, Germany. It is located on the Thomaswall in the south of the town and was built in 1517. On this side Goslar was strongly dominated by the nearby hill of Rammelsberg, which would have made a good location for positioning enemy guns in the event of an attack on the townn; the town fortifications therefore needed the extra protection of a strong battery tower at this point.
The stonework of Goslar's Zwinger was predominantly made of sandstone quarried from the Sudmerberg northeast of Goslar and mortared with burnt lime. Because lime burning was still in not fully developed, the builders mixed the mortar with horsehair, quark, goat's milk and ox blood to harden it fully.
Immediately under the corbelling are two sandstone tablets in the wall bearing the coats of arms of the German Empire and the town of Goslar and the inscription "Anno dm M D X V II". The original conical roof was dismantled in 1857.
With a wall thickness at the base of 6.5 metres, a diameter of 26 metres and a height of 20 metres, the Zwinger is one of the strongest surviving and utilised defensive towers in Europe.
The Goslar Zwinger has been privately owned since 1 August 1936. Today it houses a restaurant on the ground floor, three holiday apartments on the middle floor and a small museum of medieval weapons, armour and torture implements on the top floor.
The Zwinger in the Westphalian city of Münster is part of the old city fortifications from the Early Modern Period. In the Nazi era it was both a gaol and a Gestapo place of execution and was heavily damaged by allied air raids. Since its conversion to a memorial the Zwinger has belonged to the Münster City Museum (Stadtmuseum Münster) and is home to the sculpture Das gegenläufige Konzert.
Usage examples of "zwinger".
When, however, the professorship of the Old Testament became vacant in 1654 by the death of Theodor Zwinger, Buxtorf resigned the chair of theology and accepted that of the Old Testament instead.
This blackened shell is the Zwinger, the finest baroque ensemble ever known.
The rent at Maus Haus was higher than he had been paying on Zwinger Street, but he told himself that the sophisticated cuisine was appropriate to his new assignment and that the cats would enjoy the bearskin rug.
A former antique shop on Zwinger Street was now making a brave comeback as a restaurant, and the Petrified Bagel was furnished, appropriately, with junk.
Zwinger Street, formerly a blighted area, was now Zwinger Boulevard-a continuous landscaped park dotted with glass towers, parking structures, and apartment complexes.