# The Ruins of the Old Kreuzkirche in Dresden [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [BELLOTTO, Bernardo]() - Date: 1751-1800 - Technique: Oil on canvas ## Commentary In 1760 the Kreuzkirche, the oldest church in Dresden, was shelled by Prussian artillery; a blaze ensued during which the building collapsed. The church tower, though damaged, remained standing. When the work of reconstructing the church commenced it was decided to preserve the original tower. In June 1765, however, when the construction of the new church was already under way, the greater part of the tower collapsed nevertheless. This painting is one of Bellotto's later works, painted during his second stay in Saxony. It demonstrates his quite extraordinary, perhaps unique, capacity to capture the spirit of an event. In this case it was the demolition of the Gothic church of the Holy Cross in Dresden's New Market Square. This image of ruin, bordering on an anatomical dissection of the mortally wounded church, was to reappear two centuries after Bellotto's day with the devastating bombing of Dresden during the Second World War. ## Related artworks - [Architectural Capriccio with a Self-Portrait]() - [Capriccio of the Capitol]() - [Capriccio Padovano]() - [Capriccio with the Colosseum]() - [Dresden from the Left Bank of the Elbe, below the Fortifications]() - [Dresden from the Right Bank of the Elbe, above the Augustusbrücke]() - [Dresden, the Frauenkirche and the Rampische Gasse]() - [Dresden, the Ruins of the Pirnaische Vorstadt]() - [Dresden, the Ruins of the Pirnaische Vorstadt]() - [Liechtenstein Garden Palace in Vienna Seen from the East]() - [Liechtenstein Garden Palace in Vienna Seen from the East]() - [New Market Square in Dresden from the Jüdenhof]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()