Stand back from this long wall and take in the whole procession. This is the Fürstenzug, the Procession of Princes, and it is a family portrait like no other. Here you can see a hundred and two metres of Saxony's rulers on horseback, margraves, dukes, electors, and kings, riding in one unbroken parade across the outer wall of the royal stable yard. It began as a mural scratched into plaster to celebrate eight hundred years of the ruling Wettin dynasty. When the plaster proved no match for Dresden's weather, the entire artwork was transferred onto about twenty-three thousand tiles of Meissen porcelain, Böttger's invention, the white gold born in a prison beneath Brühl's Terrace. Let me help you read it. The procession runs in chronological order, starting with Conrad of Meissen at the far end and riding through the centuries toward the last king. There are thirty-five rulers in all. See if you can find Augustus the Strong. Here’s a tip. Each ruler’s name is written beneath his image. But look closer, because behind and around the horsemen walk fifty-nine other figures, scientists, artists, craftsmen, farmers, soldiers, and children. There are ninety-four people in total. And here's my favourite detail. In the group of children at the very tail of the procession walks a single girl, the one prominent female figure in the entire hundred metres. Eight centuries of Saxony, and one girl gets to join the parade. That tiny presence makes you feel, in one glance, how completely women were left out of the official story of power. See if you can find her. I have added her image to the Photos Tab in case you need some help. And here’s something interesting. Wilhelm Walther, the creator of this mural, has included himself in it. He comes at the end of the procession, wearing a wide-brimmed hat. Now for the part that gives me goosebumps. When the firestorm destroyed almost every building around this wall, the Fürstenzug survived with little more than soot and scratches. Why? Because Meissen porcelain is fired at around thirteen hundred degrees. These tiles were born in a heat fiercer than the one that killed the city around them. Do you see those inscriptions at the two ends of this mural? These are poetic mottoes that celebrate the continuity of the Wettin dynasty. The one at the beginning means a princely lineage whose heroic course reaches to our own day; it arose in the distant past, together with the legends of our people. And the one at the end means Old dynasty, may you always be renewed through a noble line of princes, as your people have always dedicated to you their ancient German loyalty. When you’re ready, follow the map to the next stop, where I’ll tell you about the procession of death.