The Katholische Hofkirche (also called Dresden Cathedral) makes up an integral part of the baroque ensemble crowning the Altstadt, and is one of Dresden's most dazzling buildings. Built between 1739 and 1751 by Gaetano Chiaveri as a Catholic rival to the Protestant Frauenkirche, its detailed and exuberant exterior is extraordinarily impressive, while its rather bare interior is enlivened by the gilded altar, pulpit and organ. Destroyed in WWII, it was rebuilt in the 1980s.
