Dresden has been called the 'Florence on the Elbe-river' due to its pleasant location on the river Elbe, the mild climate, as well as the Baroque-style architecture and numerous world-renowned museums and art collections.

Dresden is one of the greenest cities with 62% of the city being green areas and forests. Protected gardens, parkways, parks and old graveyards host 110 natural monuments in the city.

The Dresden Elbe Valley is a well preserved cultural landscape with the Elbe meadows crossing the city in a 20 kilometre swath.

Saxon Switzerland National Park covers an area of 93.5 km² in the heart of the Elbe Sandstone Mountains. It is an intensively fissured and rocky canyon landscape

AVIATION 

Dresden Airport is the city's international airport and accessible from the city centre by public transport (S-Bahn).

Currently, Lufthansa Group, KLM, und numerous Charter Airlines operate flights from Dresden Airport.

RAILWAY

There are two main inter-city railway stations. Direct ICE or IC railway services run to Leipzig (1 h), Berlin (1,5 h), Prague (2 h), Hannover (4h), and Frankfurt (5 h).

NEAREST CITIES: 

• Leipzig 100 kilometres (62 miles)
• Berlin 165 kilometres (103 miles), and
• Prague (capital of Czech Republic).

SCIENCE and EDUCATION:
Dresden is home to numerous academic institutions, such as:

• The Dresden Academy of Fine Arts (est. 1764). Well-known former professors and artists are e.g.: George Grosz, Sascha Schneider, Otto Dix, Oskar Kokoschka, Bernardo Bellotto, Carl-Gustav Carus, Caspar David Friedrich and Gerhard Richter.
• Technische Universität Dresden (est. 1828) with approximately 30,000 students.
• The Carl Maria von Weber College of Music, founded in 1856.
• The Palucca School of Dance (est. 1925) a major European school of free dance.
• Dresden University of Applied Sciences (est. 1992) with approx. 5,300 students.

ARTS and ARCHITECTURE:
Dresden (est. 1216) has a long history as the capital and royal residence for the State of Saxony. The city is well known for its Baroque and Rococo city centre.

Dresden is an international attraction for touristis from all over the world with 4.7 million overnight stays per year.

Famous landmarks in the city centre are the Frauenkirche located at the Neumarkt. the Zwinger, the Semperoper and Dresden Castle. Furthermore, the city is home to the renowned Dresden State Art Collections, originating from the collections of the Saxon electors in the 16th century.

INNOVATION HUB

Dresden is amongst the German cities with the highest density of research instituts.

The Fraunhofer Society operates eleven institutions or parts of institutes in Dresden.

• Dresden is the largest location of the Fraunhofer Society worldwide.
  

The Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf is one of the German Big Science research centres.

• Reserach focuses on nuclear medicine and physics.

The Max Planck Society operates three research institutes in Dresden:

• the MPI of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics,
• the MPI for Chemical Physics of Solids, and
• the MPI for the Physics of Complex Systems.

The Leibniz Society covers both, fundamental and applied research. Three Institutes are based in Dresden:

• The Leibniz Institute for Polymer Research.
• the Leibniz Institute for Solid State and Materials Research.
• the Leibniz Institute for Ecological and Regional Development with an emphasis on research in urban planning.