Japanisches Palais (Japanese Palace) is a Baroque building in Dresden on the Neustadt bank of the river Elbe. Built in 1715, it was extended from 1729 until 1731 to store the Japanese porcelain collection of Augustus the Strong that is now part of the Dresden Porcelain Collection. However, it was never used for this purpose, and instead served as a library. The palace is a work of architects Pöppelmann, Longuelune and de Bodt.
The Japanisches Palais was partly destroyed during the allied bombing raids on 13 February 1945, but was reconstructed in the 1950s and 1960s. The final reconstruction work continued until 1987. Today, it houses three museums: the Museum of Ethnology Dresden, the State Museum for Pre-History and the Senckenberg Naturhistorische Sammlungen Dresden.
References:The Jan Hus Memorial stands at one end of Old Town Square. The huge monument depicts victorious Hussite warriors and Protestants who were forced into exile 200 years after Hus, and a young mother who symbolises national rebirth. The monument was so large that the sculptor designed and built his own villa and studio where the work could be carried out. It was unveiled in 1915 to commemorate the 500th anniversary of Jan Hus' martyrdom. The memorial was designed by Ladislav Šaloun and paid for solely by public donations.
Born in 1369, Hus became an influential religious thinker, philosopher, and reformer in Prague. He was a key predecessor to the Protestant movement of the sixteenth century. In his works he criticized religious moral decay of the Catholic Church. Accordingly, the Czech patriot Hus believed that mass should be given in the vernacular, or local language, rather than in Latin. He was inspired by the teachings of John Wycliffe.