Wes Anderson's The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014) made Dresden a prime backdrop: the baroque Zwinger palace serves as the Kunstmuseum where the character Kovacs is tailed by Jopling. The interiors of Mendl's bakery were filmed at Pfunds Molkerei, a historic dairy on Bautzner Straße.
The famous Pfunds Molkerei, listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the most beautiful dairy in the world, is entirely covered in hand-painted neo-Renaissance ceramic tiles. As for the Frauenkirche, reduced to rubble in 1945, it was only rebuilt true to the original in 2005, reusing thousands of blackened original stones.
Slip into the Kunsthofpassage in the Neustadt district, a series of decorated courtyards including the famous façade that plays music in the rain. Find the discreet entrance via a data eSIM, as it's easy to miss.