Lausitz: Sorbs – Silesia – coal
Let us begin our day trip to the region of the Sorbs with a stopover at the heart of the area inhabitedby this minority to this day: the city of Bautzen. Following me on a one-hour tour you will understand
that this 1000-year-old city, which is situated on a granite plateau high above the River Spree
and features steep city walls by the riverside, mediaeval bastions, waterworks and fortified churches,
deserves better than only to be associated with its “Gelbes Elend” (yellow misery), as a local prison
is called. During the tour you will learn that the leaning tower of Pisa is not alone: Bautzen has one,
too, and those who climb the Reichenturm will enjoy a marvellous view of the rolling Lausitzer Bergland
(Lusatian Hills). Later, in the traditional “Wjelbik” restaurant, the hostess in Sorbian costume
will welcome us in her mother tongue saying “Witajce k nam” and serve a wedding soup
or other local specialities.
The tour continues further east to the city of Görlitz, which is part of Lower Silesia. The market squares,
Obermarkt and Untermarkt, featuring covered walks and hall buildings which J.W. Goethe already called
“merchants’ castles”, are testimony to the patricians’ successful cloth and woad business in past centuries.
Monuments from all epochs of art history, e.g. the Gothic Flüsterbogen (Arch of Whispers),
beautifully renovated and reflecting the charm of times past, have often served film producers
as a perfect setting, also known as “Görlywood” on the River Neiße. On Altstadtbrücke (Old Town Bridge)
we walk across this border river into the Polish part of the city, enjoy the view back
to the impressive church of St. Peter with its Gothic towers and stop at one of the neat restaurants
on the embankment walk of Zgorzelec.
Tip: Both Bautzen and Görlitz can be combined with other destinations such as the Cistercian nunnery
of St. Marienstern, the Sorbian village of Ralbitz with its Catholic cemetery, Herrnhut - the place where
the Moravian Church originated and where the Moravian stars are made, Nieder- and Obercunnersdorf
with numerous Umgebindehäuser, a characteristic type of vernacular architecture, or the Lausitzer Seenland,
a lake landscape following open-pit soft coal mining.