One of the world’s most precious collections of ceremonial weapons and costumes, the Dresden Armoury has its origins in the estates of the Saxon dukes and electoral princes. It unites masterworks by armourers, artists and craftsmen from all over Europe and the Orient and encompasses some 10,000 ceremonial weapons as well as riding gear, ceremonial garments, art objects and portraits, primarily of the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries – all once belonging to the Wettin electoral princes. Some 290 years after its disappearance in 1733, the Giants’ Hall has reopened in the Dresden Royal Palace, where it now shines in new splendour. It features more than 380 works, among them tournament and ceremonial weapons bearing witness to various historical tournament forms and the magnificence of electoral culture at the Saxon court. Measuring 57 metres in length and 13 in width, the monumental Giants’ Hall provides the Armoury plenty of space – not only to display a selection of its most important armour and weapons of the fifteenth to seventeenth centuries, but also to stage the objects in a manner that does justice to their onetime use. The Renaissance wing makes the castle’s history accessible from a new perspective. In the two permanent presentations “Electoral Wardrobe” and “The Rise of Electoral Power in Saxony”, visitors can experience the world’s largest costume and ceremonial weapon holdings of the Reformation period and the Early Baroque. With the aid of sumptuous and unique objects, the exhibitions introduce the electoral and clerical protagonists of Reformation-era Saxony. Original garments show off the grandiose electoral fashions of the Renaissance and Early Baroque, to which – with few exceptions – otherwise only portraits of the great rulers who wore them still testify today. In the section entitled “Concept and Encounter: The World around 1600”, works of the Late Renaissance offer insights into the fascinating and widely diverse Kunstkammer phenomenon. The Turkish Chamber is one of the oldest and most significant collections of Ottoman art in the world outside Turkey. The Turkish Fashion so popular at the electoral Saxon court finds expression in Oriental and Oriental-style weapons, clothing and riding equipment as well as the magnificent Turkish tents.