Dresden's treasures: Börsentag and Grünes Gewölbe

The investor's fair "Börsentag Dresden" celebrated its 20th anniversary this year. In 1997, the largest trade fair in Eastern Germany opened its gates for the first time. Since then, it always has been the year’s very first date for private and professional investors to share their ideas and estimates regarding the still new trading year: what opportunities will 2017 offer to increase the value of their assets? Hardly any venue could be more suitable for this purpose than Dresden, which, in addition to the investor's fair, also houses the Grüne Gewölbe ("green vault"), which celebrates its 470th anniversary in 2017.

The former treasure chamber of the Wettin princes, stylistically ranging from Baroque to Classicism, owes its name to its former malachite green column bases and capitals. Over the centuries, the Grüne Gewölbe has become the most extensive collection of European treasures, and has been open to the public since 1724. Today, the former treasure chamber is divided into two exhibitions: the Historische Grüne Gewölbe and the Neue Grüne Gewölbe. The Historische Grüne Gewölbe ("historical green vault") features, in addition to some 3,000 exhibits, a magnificent interior design, while the Neue Grüne Gewölbe ("new green vault") focuses on the 1,100 exhibited art objects. These consist exclusively of what was then and is to this day perceived as hard "currencies": thousands of diamonds, rubies, emeralds and sapphires were used in the production – and lots of gold.

For instance, the Saxon Elector and Polish King Augustus the Strong, one of the many sponsors of the Grüne Gewölbe, ordered a comprehensive coffee set made exclusively from pure gold in 1701. August the Strong proved to be a real gold fan on several occasions: in the 1730s, he had an equestrian statue portraying himself produced – completely fire-gilded. The so-called Goldene Reiter ("Golden Horseman") is the most famous monument in Dresden, known far beyond the borders of Germany since the NDW smash hit of the same name by Joachim Witt.