The Green Vault of Dresden [antikvár]

The Museum as a Work of Art The History of the Green Vault (das Grüne Gewölbe) The Green Vault had its origin in the private repository (Geheime Verwahrung) of the Prince Electors of Saxony. This was a room situated on the ground floor of the west wing of the palace in Dresden that was the royal residence. It was protected on all sides by walls metres thick, by vaulted ceilings between it and the cellars, and the first floor rooms, while gratings and iron shutters made its windows secure from the outside. A spiral staircase concealed within the internal brickwork linked it with the living quarters of the Elector's family. The room in the ruins of the castle is in temporary use today, and there, the green colouring that gave it its name can still be seen on the profiled semicircular arch that gave access to this staircase. It was already known as the Grünes Gewölbe in the 16th century. The name probably first came into use in the informal language of the court. Within the wing of the castle built after 1550, the Prince Elector, Augustus of Saxony, had this room on the ground floor fitted out for the safe keeping of jewels, money and documents of state, and on the upper floor, under the roof, his Kunstkammer, a room to house works of art. The latter contained thousands of pieces of equipment, tools, instruments as well as cabinets, works of graphic art, paintings and sculptures. A feature common to both was that they contained the finest examples of works that represented the most recent developments in their own field. This characteristic arose from Saxony's industrial tradition which had developed ever since the 13th century on the basis of the country's mining industry and which still determined the nature of the collection in the 18th century. And indeed, fundamental features of Prince Augustus' Kunstkammer have been retained in the Schatzkammer (Tie&sme chamber). He was one of the great collectors in the cultural history of Germany. He extended his armoury making it one of the finest displays of ceremonial weaponry to be found anywhere; he put together a library that was already famous in its own day, and which is today the Sächsische Landesbibliothek (Saxon National Library), and made valuable additions to the royal collections of coins and of silver. All these initiatives were aspects of his endeavours to consolidate the Electorate of Saxony after the wars that followed the Re-