Pillnitz Castle

Pillnitz Castle is a Baroque palace set among terraced gardens on the banks of the Elbe on the eastern edge of Dresden. Built in the early eighteenth century as a summer residence for the Saxon court, its wings blend European Baroque form with fashionable chinoiserie roofs that curve upward at the eaves. The riverside water palace is reached by a grand set of steps rising from a landing stage where the court once arrived by gondola. Its park holds a famous centuries-old Japanese camellia sheltered each winter beneath a mobile greenhouse.