Frauenkirche Dresden

Completed in 1743, the Frauenkirche's sandstone dome — the 'stone bell' — was Dresden's crowning glory. On the night of 13–14 February 1945, British and American bombers unleashed a firestorm that killed around 25,000 people and turned the Baroque city to ash. The church itself withstood the blast for a full day, then, its sandstone weakened by heat, collapsed on 15 February into a 13-metre mound of rubble. The Communist regime left the ruin as an anti-war monument for 45 years. After reunification it was rebuilt using 3,800 original stones catalogued from the heap; the golden cross atop the new dome was forged by a British silversmith whose father had bombed the city. It reopened in 2005.