the German city of Dresden was one of Europe's architectural and artistic gems—its "Florence on the Elbe." The Frauenkirche, or Church of Our Lady, a masterpiece of Protestant Baroque design ...

On the night of February 13, 1945, which by macabre coincidence happened to be Fasching, the local Mardi Gras, the first of three waves of Allied bombers swept over Dresden, the Baroque jewel of ...