Fate has not smiled kindly upon Dresden. A fire in 1685 destroyed most of the city north of the river, leading to reconstruction and a new name, Neustadt (New Town). The city suffered heavy damage in the Seven Years War back in the 1750s, and then, after resting relatively peacefully for about 200 years—even gaining a reputation as a “Florence on the Elbe” for its wealth of world-renowned Baroque architecture commissioned by its dynasty of filthy rich electors—the whole city was almost completely leveled by Allied bombing over two nights in February of 1945. Hundreds of thousands of civilians and all of the city’s famous sights met their end in the extremely controversial (and since vaguely repudiated) attack, leaving the city in ruins until the last decades of the 20th century. Despite the meddling of the devastating “millennium flood” in 2002, most of the historic buildings have since been restored, some extremely successfully, others still bearing the scars of bombs and reconstruction. Original or not, Dresden has regained its reputation as one of Germany’s most magnificent cities, with a gorgeous river skyline as well as a sea of engrossing museums, historic buildings, and crowded cobblestone squares.