The Zionskirche is the name given to two Evangelical Lutheran church buildings in the Südvorstadt district of Dresden

Dresden

Dresden is the capital city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe, near the Czech border. The Dresden conurbation is part of the Saxon Triangle metropolitan area....

. The first, the Alten Zionskirche or Old Zionskirche was built by Schilling & Graebner

Schilling & Graebner

Schilling & Graebner was founded by the architects Rudolf Schilling and Julius Graebner in Dresden in 1889. Over the years Schilling & Graebner changed their style repeatedly. Starting with historistic buildings they became especially known as leading German architects of Art Nouveau and Modernity...

 from 1908 to 1912. This building was hit and badly damaged by fire during the bombing in February 1945

Bombing of Dresden in World War II

The Bombing of Dresden was a military bombing by the British Royal Air Force and the United States Army Air Force and as part of the Allied forces between 13 February and 15 February 1945 in the Second World War...

. A temporary roof was later added and it is now preserved as a ruin, housing a lapidarium

Lapidarium

A lapidarium is a place where stone monuments and fragments of archaeological interest are exhibited - stone epigraphs, statues, architectural details like columns, cornices and acroterions, as well as tombstones and sarcophagi....

 with 3000 sculptures. The parish, meanwhile, was housed in a barracks next to the ruins until the first stone of a new building (the Neue Zionskirche) was laid on Bayreuther Straße on 5 June 1981, as a gift from the Church of Sweden

Church of Sweden

The Church of Sweden is the largest Christian church in Sweden. The church professes the Lutheran faith and is a member of the Porvoo Communion. With 6,589,769 baptized members, it is the largest Lutheran church in the world, although combined, there are more Lutherans in the member churches of...

. With its construction overseen by Eberhard Burger

Eberhard Burger

Eberhard Burger, OBE is a German civil engineer. He is particularly active in Dresden, overseeing construction of the new Zionskirche and serving as Director of Construction for the rebuilding of the Frauenkirche from 1996 to 2005 and from 2001 to present as chairman of the Dresden Frauenkirche...

, the new building was inaugurated on 31 October 1982.