City of Görlitz. About Goerlitz. A cunning strategy against demolition

Gorlitz from A to Z: map, hotels, attractions, restaurants, entertainment. Shopping, shops. Photos, videos and reviews about Görlitz.

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Transport

The city is small, but despite the narrow streets, there are no problems with parking even in the center: there is a fairly large parking lot at Obermarkt. Public transport is represented by trams and buses, which also operate in areas where cars are not allowed to travel.

Taxis are inexpensive because the distances are short. It is better to look for cars in special parking lots. There is no point in discussing prices with the driver; all cars are equipped with meters. You won't be able to take a taxi in the historical center - there are many pedestrian areas, so it's better to use public transport or bicycles, which you can rent.

Gorlitz Hotels

There are many hotels in Görlitz, there are guest houses, apartments, but not just hostels. Their star rating is mostly low, in contrast to their prices - it’s not easy to find a room cheaper than 40-50 EUR per night. But almost all of them are within walking distance from the main attractions, many are in historical buildings. There are few 4-5* hotels, the cost of a double room is 85-150 EUR. Prices on the page are as of September 2018.

You can save money by staying in neighboring Zgorzelec, on the other side of the Neisse River. The options there are simpler, and prices start from 28-30 EUR per double room per night. The cities form a single urban space, buses run between them, and the historical center of Görlitz can be easily reached on foot from Zgorzelec.

Cuisine and restaurants

Restaurants in Görlitz feature predominantly Saxon cuisine, which is distinguished by a special love for potatoes. The most popular dish is Buttermilchgetzen, a potato casserole with loin. Soups are also simple; the menu often includes bread soup (Brotsuppe), as well as “Eintopf” - a thick soup that combines the first and second courses. The main desserts of Saxon cuisine were invented in Dresden: Dresden cake (Dresdener Stollen) and Saxon cheesecake (Sachsische Eierschecke).

In fast food establishments, a combo lunch will cost 8-10 EUR, dinner in a restaurant for two with alcohol will cost 40-50 EUR.

Sights of Gorlitz

The old center of Görlitz is one of the best preserved in all of Central Europe. More than 4,000 local buildings are considered historical and architectural monuments. The towers around the Old Town have partially survived. The largest of them is the 15th century Kaisertrutz with thick 5-meter walls. Inside there is now an art gallery and a small history museum.

The Reichenbach Tower of the 14th century is more elegant, it is considered the most beautiful: on the facades are visible 12 coats of arms of cities and state entities with which Görlitz was ever associated. Inside there is an exhibition dedicated to the defensive structures of the Middle Ages and an observation deck.

Behind the tower begins the Obermarkt (Upper Market), where the famous house No. 27 with a red door and a sign “D.V.R.T.1527” is located. In this house, a “conspiracy of cloth workers” took place in 1527. They were executed, the house was marked, and the alley where the arch of the house goes was called “alley of traitors” (Ferretergasse). Nearby is the House of Napoleon (No. 29), where the emperor received the parade in 1813. But the main building of the square is the Church of the Holy Trinity of the 13th century, inside which many interior elements have been preserved, including the folded altar “Golden Madonna”.

The Silesian Museum is housed in the Schönhof house ("Red House"), considered the most beautiful and oldest Renaissance building in the region (Bruderstrabe 8). From here begins the oldest part of the city - the Lower Market (Untermarkt) with the town hall of two buildings from the 13th and 16th centuries, fountains and houses with arcades, where cloth used to be traded. The Upper Lusatian Scientific Library of the 18th century with unique ancient volumes is also located here. It occupies a Baroque house at Neusstraße 30. Another unique attraction is the Wehrtime Trading House, built in 1912. Its luxurious interiors can be seen in the film “The Grand Budapest Hotel”.

The late Gothic arch in the house at Untermarkt 22 is unusual. From one end you can hear whispers on the other.

This small town has many more unusual houses, churches, towers: it is not for nothing that it is considered the most interesting from a historical and architectural point of view in the region.

The city of Görlitz is already located on German territory, but it is still Silesia, more precisely, its western part, which is called Lusatia. Unlike the rest of Silesia, Lusatia never belonged to either the Polish princes or the Habsburgs - its pre-Silesian history looks like this:
1032-1367 - part of the Margraviate of Meissen;
1367-1635 - as part of Bohemia;
1635-1815 - as part of Saxony. And only after passing to Prussia, most of Lusatia was administratively united with Silesia into one province. The post-war border between Germany and Poland along the Odre-Neisse again divided this small region into parts, and the district center of Görlitz - completely in half, and the Polish half across the river became a separate city Zgorzelec.

Lusatia differs from other German regions in the presence of a Slavic ethnic minority - the Lusatian Sorbs (60 thousand people). From a school geography course, everyone knows about the existence of this unknown people, but hardly anyone has seen its representatives alive or at least examples of material culture. I can’t help with this either, because in an hour of walking around the city I didn’t notice anything like that, not even bilingual signs.

It’s also unlikely that anyone will remember offhand where Görlitz is located, so you need to provide a map and historical information. So, we are in the very south-eastern corner of the former GDR, on the border with Poland and not far from the Czech Republic, just south of the Wroclaw-Dresden autobahn:

Görlitz (55 thousand inhabitants) received city rights in 1268, developing from a settlement on the Via Regia trade route. The Mongols did not reach here, and the city quickly rose to prominence as a center of trade and textile crafts in the 13th and 14th centuries. The fortress walls withstood the siege during the Hussite wars, and in the 15th century Görlitz was also not in poverty, although it often entered into feudal conflicts with neighboring cities. The city reached its heyday in the 16th century, as part of Bohemia - churches and rich houses were built in the Renaissance style, the population reached 10 thousand, reformism achieved complete success here. The 17th century for Görlitz, as for all of Europe, became much less successful, and the city suffered greatly from the Swedish occupation in 1641. The secondary rise occurred already in the 19th century - the era of industrialization. The railway came to the city, new plants and factories opened. In the 20th century, Görlitz was again lucky to emerge from the world wars without much destruction, so that its historical center is well preserved to this day. However, having suddenly found itself after the war on the periphery of first the GDR and then the united Germany, the city still cannot get out of the depression, eventually losing more than a third of its pre-war population.

As a matter of fact, it was necessary to examine both parts of the previously unified city - German and Polish, and then somehow compare, but there was only enough time for one. So let's take a walk around the German half.

When entering a new state, it is always alarming - you are afraid of the evil guards of the border and order who can find fault with anything, while you have no rights or knowledge of how to fight back. Moreover, I don’t speak German (in Poland, I managed to fight off one cop, knowing a hundred or two words, including the magical “whore!”). In short, having parked in a trump spot right next to the pedestrian bridge, I looked around for a long time to see if there was any trick: I can still understand the inscription under the P sign like “Park nur mit Auschweiss”, but the other explanatory signs are already Chinese letters for me . But everything worked out well, and I began my inspection from the place where the bridge over the river was drawn:

The first thing, of course, was to cross the border bridge to the Polish side and back. There are practically no pedestrians in the morning: either the Poles and Germans don’t work for each other at all, or they start early - at five minutes to 9 the bridge is empty:

This is the Polish side. It is clear that the district was a suburb - there are few historical buildings, among which the main place is occupied by the old mill, which has stood by the river since time immemorial. It’s interesting that the pedestrian bridge appeared quite recently - in 2004, and before that there was no need for it - why open an extra border crossing? And the previous bridge was blown up in 1945 by the retreating Nazis.

The Neisse River looks shallow and quiet, but during a flood it can cause damage (it already demolished one bridge in 1897), so the embankments are properly strengthened:

To the south of the bridge, on the Polish side, the buildings of Grechesky Boulevard stand with a single façade:

Zgorzelec's status was not determined until 1950; The Germans had already been expelled, and the Poles had not yet settled. At the same time, refugees from Greece appeared in Poland, fleeing the civil war, and it was decided to settle them in the emptying city. In total, 10-15 thousand Greeks arrived, and for a long time, right up to their return to their homeland, they played a noticeable role in the life of the city. This is how, for centuries, the unnoticed county town of Görlitz found itself in the midst of a great migration of peoples.

Opposite the Greek Boulevard is the German Uferstrasse, which also faces the river with a single façade, except that there is more greenery:

And on the right hand of the bridge rises the main city landmark - the Peter and Paul Church:

Having managed to get used to the fact that in Poland all the large Gothic churches are Catholic, I wanted to call this church the Farny Church. But the vast majority of German churches belong to Protestants, therefore - pfarrkirche. The church was built over a long 70 years (1425-97), replacing an ancient Romanesque basilica on this site. With a length of 72 and a height of spiers of 84 meters, this church, according to Wikipedia, is the largest in Saxony. It’s hard to believe, because we just saw a couple of hundred-meter-tall churches in Wroclaw: was it really built on a large scale in Silesia? But this church has five naves: three naves of equal height, and two side naves a quarter lower. The latter are supported by powerful buttresses, and a chapel is built on the southern side:

The three-tier façade bears obvious traces of restoration, but the deep arched portal is older than the church itself - it remains from the previous Romanesque church. Small windows almost repeat the arched shape of the portal:

I didn’t go inside, although the interior is solemn and stylish, and in the choir there is a very beautiful organ called the Solar (1703):

Let's return to the general plan - next to the church there is a building that cannot be missed. This Waidhaus is the oldest civil building in Görlitz, known since 1131. It was used in different ways, in particular, in the 16th century it served as a warehouse for wool dyeing raw materials, the so-called. woad (hence the name). After renovation in 1994, the foundation for the protection of monuments and crafts settled in the house:

Go ahead. In the Middle Ages, the city was surrounded by a double row of fortress walls, which were dismantled only in 1848. What remains of them are two fragments and several bastion towers. One of them, Nikolaiturm, is located directly opposite the facade of the church and, believe it or not, is two hundred years older than it:

He didn’t come any closer, but turned south, going out along Peterstrasse to the Lower Market Square (Untermarkt). On its western side there are both city halls - the old and the new. The middle of the already small square is occupied by a dense island of houses (Die Zeile - Line), so the town halls are visually divided, and each one seems to be headed by its own separate square. The old town hall was covered with scaffolding on the day of my arrival, so I’d better show you what it looks like after renovation:

The town hall has been operating in Görlitz since 1369, but its building is, of course, younger. If you look closely, its appearance contains elements of many styles - from Gothic to Neo-Renaissance, which is the result of many reconstructions, repairs and renovations. The building acquired its modern form in 1516, when the clock tower was completed. It has several dials; the lower pair dates from the 16th century, and contains, in addition to clocks, solar and lunar calendars. On the building itself, several ancient details have been preserved - a portal, a bay window, a balcony.

Next to the old town hall, in 1903, an impressive new building was erected, in the neo-Renaissance style, with a richly decorated multi-tiered facade:

The lower tier with an arched gallery remains from the previous houses of the 17th century; under the cornice of the second, the coats of arms of the other five cities of the Lusatian League, which included medieval Görlitz, were installed, and the coat of arms of Görlitz itself was placed on the top of the pediment - not visible from afar.

On the left in the photo you can see the former stock exchange building (1706) with a magnificent portal, now the Börse Hotel. If the northern part of the Line is formed by one building, but on its southern side there is a single facade of tall buildings (No. 9-14). All of them were in one way or another connected with trade: there used to be shopping arcades here, and the corner building is called Waage (“Scales”) - in it the pedantic Germans registered and imposed duties on all goods coming to the market:

An attentive reader will see in these buildings a mixture of styles that seem to come from the bottom up: the Gothic foundations of the very first houses, Renaissance portals with columns, Baroque decor of the upper tiers. At the same time, such eclecticism does not hurt the eyes at all, and the development looks stylish and beautiful. Along the perimeter of the square there are also many interesting old houses in the Baroque and Renaissance styles; for example, these two beauties of the 16th century on the north side (No. 23-24):

It’s a pity we didn’t have time to stay and take a closer look at all the details - the Görlitz Untermarkt is more interesting and authentic compared to the squares of the Polish cities that we visited the day before. To the east of the square, the street Neißstraße descends back to the pedestrian bridge. It is mostly built up with newer, baroque buildings from the early 18th century, which appeared here after the fire of 1726:

This is the southern side of the street, with houses No. 25-30. There is a lot to be said about each of them, for example, in the yellow house (No. 27, Bürgerliche Brauhaus) beer of a local brand was brewed for two hundred years. But the greatest interest among architects is the second house on the right (No. 29, “Bible House”), which is considered the standard of the Görlitz Renaissance (built in 1572, it survived a fire).

Down the street there is also an interesting group of houses. Almost all of them had brewing rights, which is why they have high ground floors. And on house No. 20, a wall painting from the 17th century, characteristic of Upper Lusatia, was restored:

Let's return back to Untermarkt and go west, past the old town hall. To the left of it is the so-called Schönhof. Despite the bright coloring, this is almost the oldest authentic house in the city, which has survived to this day in its Renaissance form without alterations since 1526. Now it is a city museum:

In ancient times, salt and spices were traded here, and in the 19th century the Obermarkt became a kind of parade square: there is a lot of open space, and among the generally baroque buildings there is more splendor of the Art Nouveau era. General plan, view to the west:

In the background you can see the bastion tower Reichenbacher Turm, which has guarded the western gate of the city since the mid-14th century. Like the other two, this tower is topped by a baroque dome with a bell, onto the balcony of which you can climb. In the foreground is another fountain (there are more than a dozen of them in the city; we have already seen one in the lower square - the Neptune Fountain. Unfortunately, this fountain is only a copy of a 17th century sculpture, the original of which is in the courtyard of the museum.) It is also noticeable in the photo that all corner buildings date back to the Art Nouveau era at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. Obviously, during the next renovation of the square, it was decided not to restore the old corner buildings, but to replace them with new ones in the then fashionable Art Nouveau style, providing high corner bay windows with a spire, thereby giving the square a more solemn appearance. I think it turned out quite successfully.

The northern side of Obermarkt has a more uniform, baroque appearance (view from west to east, in the opposite direction):

The most interesting thing here is the pink house in the middle, with a triangular pediment and a balcony above the portal (No. 29, Napoleon House). It was from this balcony that on August 20, 1813, the French emperor reviewed his troops before the Battle of Dresden.

It can be seen that the town hall tower stands in the woods, and to the right, on the south side at the beginning of the square, rises the bell tower of the Church of the Holy Trinity. There was a Franciscan monastery on this site from the beginning of the 13th century, and the monks built their first church in 1245. It was expanded and rebuilt several times, acquiring its modern late Gothic appearance by 1508. With the advent of the Reformation, the Franciscans gradually curtailed their activities, and in 1564 the monastery closed, transferring the property to the city, which established a school in its place. True, it is not very clear why the schoolchildren needed the bell tower, which was built on in 1607 - apparently, the Protestants somehow supervised this school, because another hundred years later they returned the sacred status to the temple, setting up a parish in it. And today the church looks like this:

Most likely, the schoolchildren were still housed not in the church itself, but in the neighboring monastery buildings, because the Gymnasium Augustum has been operating at their address from the same 1564 to the present day. In 1856, the cells were replaced by a building specially built for the gymnasium in the neo-Gothic style. This is just his west wing,

and from the façade it looks more like a palace rather than a gymnasium:

Having passed the Upper Market along the entire length to the west, we come to the already mentioned Reichenbach tower with a height of 49 m. The tower looks gloomy, since the last renovation happened quite a long time ago - in 1936. It shows the emblems of the six states of which Görlitz was a part during its history , as well as six cities of the Lusatian League (a pair of coats of arms on each of the three sides):

This is another square, Demianiplatz, named after the first mayor of Görlitz. This square forms the border of the old and new cities - behind it the imperial quarters of the 19th and 20th centuries begin. To the left of the tower there is a giant round bastion - Kaisertrutz, with which it was previously connected by a fortress wall. From its appearance, one can imagine how strong the city’s defenses were. After reconstruction in 1932, the bastion housed the Museum of History and Culture of Upper Lusatia:

Turning south from here, for some reason I missed the building of the city theater and went straight to Marienplatz - the symbol of the new city:

This square was formed already in the 19th century, having won its place due to the demolished city walls. From the previous fortifications, only the bastion Thick Tower (Dicker Turm) remained, covering the former Stone Gate to the city. This is the third and last of the towers we have already seen.

At the southern end of the square stands the large department store Kaufhaus zum Strauß, built in 1913 in the Art Nouveau style in the image of Berlin's famous Wertheim on Leipzig Platz. It was inconvenient to shoot against the sun, but all its beauty is still inside:

However, not everything in the new city is modern - between the theater and the department store there is this single facade, and it is entirely neo-Renaissance:

We follow the tram to the south. Right behind the department store (even a piece of it was included in the photo), there is another church - Frauenkirche (Our Lady):

This ancient (1473) Gothic church eventually found itself in the noisiest and most crowded place in the city - between two shopping centers, a post office and a tram line. It is not particularly remarkable - small, three-nave, simple outside and inside (although with an organ), but all the main Gothic elements are present - two portals, a belfry, buttresses and even an apse with a sacristy:

However, it has become one of the symbols of the city. After going around the church, the tram comes out onto the large Postal Square, with monumental buildings of the Prussian era on the sides (bank, district court, main post office) and the Muschelminna fountain in the middle. Of all this, I only photographed the post office building (1887):

At this point, time ran out and we had to call it a day. As you can see, the city turned out to be quite interesting; I highly recommend visiting it for lovers of the Renaissance and Baroque. Now I regret that I spent so little time on such a pleasant and educational walk - only 1:08. Yes, in the end I missed little, but I moved almost at a run instead of a leisurely, thoughtful inspection. On second thought, from now on you shouldn’t plan to visit more than two cities a day :)

"Deutsche Welle" (German: Deutsche Welle), a media company of the Federal Republic of Germany, has published the results of a study of the country's most popular tourist destinations. A rating of German attractions was determined. The TOP-100 list consists of 100 objects, which we describe in detail on the pages of the site.

In 2016, the Old Town of Görlitz was ranked 87th on this list. It should be noted that it is mentioned for the first time in the TOP-100 list. Last year, many new objects were added to this list.

(German Görlitz) is one of the most beautiful cities in Germany and a symbol of European history. Once upon a time, countries and cultures met here on the Neisse River. Germans and Poles, citizens of Silesia and East Prussia, Jews and Greeks lived peacefully here in a relatively small area for centuries. The storms of the last century destroyed the former harmony. After World War II, the eastern part of Görlitz became part of Poland and was named Zgorzelec. Only in 2004, the two parts of the city, the German Görlitz and the Polish Zgorzelec, were again connected by a pedestrian bridge...

Görlitz is the easternmost city in Germany. The Federal Republic of Germany ends behind it. The city is located on the Neisse River, along which the border with Poland has passed since 1945. The city has 55,000 inhabitants and 4,000 well-restored historical monuments. Görlitz fascinates with the mixture of Catholicism and Protestantism, Czech, Prussian, Saxon, Silesian cultures and history.

The city's architectural landscape is filled with architectural monuments from the Renaissance to Art Nouveau. The symbol of Görlitz is the Old Town Hall on the Lower Market (German: Untermarkt). Next to it is the stone arch “Flüsterbogen” (German: Flugsterbogen).

Görlitz Old Town Hall

The appearance of the Old Town Hall building contains elements of many styles - from Gothic to Neo-Renaissance, which appeared as a result of reconstructions, repairs and renovations. The building acquired its modern form in 1516, when the clock tower was completed. It has several dials; the lower pair dates from the 16th century, and contains, in addition to clocks, solar and lunar calendars. On the building itself, several ancient details have been preserved - a portal, a bay window, a balcony.

Next to the Old Town Hall, in 1903 the impressive building of the New Town Hall was erected in the neo-Renaissance style, with a richly decorated multi-tiered facade.

New Town Hall

Görlitz (55 thousand inhabitants) received city rights in 1268, developing from a settlement on the Via Regia trade route, which has existed in Europe since the times of the ancient Roman Empire. In the 13th and 14th centuries it quickly rose to prominence as a center of trade and textile crafts. The fortress walls withstood the siege during the Hussite Wars. In the 15th century, Görlitz also did not live in poverty, although it often entered into feudal conflicts with neighboring cities. The city reached its heyday in the 16th century as part of Bohemia; churches and rich houses in the Renaissance style were built here.

Like all medieval cities in Western Europe, Görlitz was surrounded by a fortress wall. Several towers have been preserved from the former fortifications, which allow you to imagine ancient defensive structures.

The 17th century became difficult for Görlitz, as for all of Europe. The city suffered greatly during the Thirty Years' War from the Swedish occupation in 1641. The next rise of the city occurred in the 19th century - the era of industrialization. A railway appeared in Görlitz, new plants and factories opened. In the 20th century, Görlitz was lucky again - it survived two world wars without much destruction, so that its historical center is well preserved to this day. However, having suddenly found itself after the war on the periphery of first the GDR and then the united Germany, the city still cannot get out of the depression, eventually losing more than a third of its pre-war population.

Today, the old part of the city has been almost completely reconstructed, largely thanks to a generous patron of the arts, who wished to remain anonymous. “We don’t know who it is, but apparently he loves his hometown very much. Every year we receive 500 thousand euros exclusively for restoration work,” says famous photographer Peter Mitsching, who photographed crumbling buildings during the many years of the communist regime of the GDR. building. This allows us to restore and restore unique architectural monuments located in the city.

The fact that the city has changed so much in just a quarter of a century is akin to a miracle, says photographer Jörg Schöner. The gigantic investments in the eastern part of Germany will pay off, he is sure - or have already justified themselves, as in Görlitz.

The old part of Görlitz became the most prestigious residential area of ​​the city. Wealthy retirees from the western part of Germany come to live here, often with family roots in the eastern part of the country.

For example, Quentin Tarantino’s film “Inglourious Basterds” and “Goethe!” were filmed on the historical streets of Görlitz. Philipp Stölzl and “The Reader” starring Kate Winslet.

Sources:
Official site:

54,000 inhabitants.

The city of Görlitz has a unique destiny to some extent. One of the richest and most influential Lower Silesian cities became one of the symbols of Europe after the Second World War: it was divided into two parts between two states, Poland and the GDR. After Poland joined the EU, the border remained conditional, and the two banks of the Nisa were connected by a bridge, which was erected on the site of an ancient bridge, which in ancient times was the main and only trade route for many kilometers. The historical center of Görlitz has been almost completely restored, thanks to various government awards and an unknown donor, who for many years in a row sent the city a check for restoration for a round sum for Christmas, but the outskirts of the city are still popular with filmmakers when they need to film post-war devastation. In general, Görlitz is a famous city-actor at the international level. he even has a nickname: Gurlywood. And this is also one of his faces. What can you see and do here?

A little history

The first mention of Görlitz, or rather “Villa Görelitz,” dates back to 1071; perhaps it was a Slavic fortress. Now a cathedral stands on this site. The town near the castle appeared around 1200. And soon a real trade center of the Middle Ages appeared here thanks to its special location at the intersection of trade routes - royal and Bohemian, along which goods were transported between Saxony / Thuringia and Silesia / Poland, Hansa and Upper German cities and Bohemia and Hungary. Trade in woad from Thuringia (Erfurt region) and locally produced cloth flourished especially. The city acquired city rights at the beginning of the 14th century. Architectural evidence of this time are houses with huge halls, built in the style of late Gothic and early Renaissance. The halls served to check the fabric: a bundle of fabric was rolled out from top to bottom and quality inspection was carried out.

View of the Nisa River and the new Old Bridge

The cloth trade and staple rights helped the city quickly become not only an important center of trade, but also grow, embellishing itself with magnificent houses. Already in the mid-14th century, the city entered into a trade alliance with other regional "trading powers" - Bautzen, Kamenz, Lubau, Zittau and Lauben, forming the Union of Six Cities, led by Görlitz. The 15th and 16th centuries were the real heyday of the city. Numerous rulers are far away, the city is ruled by merchants. Unfortunately, in the 16th century there was an uprising, then a fire, in the 17th century - a real disaster - the Thirty Years' War. Almost nothing remains of Görlitz from those times.

But the city is being restored again, experiencing fires and disasters, but each time it comes out of these situations more beautiful and more stylish. And now the city, which has survived so many wars and regimes, gives us the opportunity to enjoy more than 4,000 architectural monuments of different periods, from Gothic to Art Nouveau.
Now Görlitz is called the “European city of Görlitz-Zgorzelec” to show the unity of the divided.

What to see

The city has preserved a system of city fortifications, the historical center is surrounded by towers, and boulevards and streets have been laid in place of the former walls.
Kaisertrutz - a massive round barbican tower with walls reaching almost 5 meters in thickness. It was built in 1490, and the name appeared during the Thirty Years' War, when the Swedes resisted the emperor's troops besieging them inside the tower. In the 19th century the tower was restored. Now it houses a museum - a city collection of art, with an art gallery of German masters of the 18th-20th centuries. The museum also has a historical department (history of the city). Over time, Kaisertrutz has become a real symbol of the city.

Kaisertrutz

Reichenbach Tower – the most beautiful fortress tower of the city, first mentioned in 1376. In 1485 it was built on with a cylindrical top. Decorated with 12 coats of arms: below are cities from the union of six cities, which included Görlitz, Bautzen, Lobau, Zittau, Kamenz and Lauban, the latter now in Poland. At the top - which state formations Görlitz belonged to: the German Empire, the Meissen Mark, the Brandenburg Arch, the Electorate of Saxony, Prussia, Silesia. There was also the coat of arms of Bohemia, but now it is covered by the coat of arms of Lobau. The tower houses an exhibition of medieval city defense and has an observation deck.

Immediately behind the Reichenbach Tower begins a square called Obermarkt, or Upper Market, which appears in 1245 as a result of the growth of the city. On the north side you can see houses built after a fire in 1717, later added to the 1st floor.

Obermarkt

Particularly worth highlighting is house 27, with an arch leading to Ferretergasse . The self-explanatory name of the alley (translated as “alley of traitors”) is reminiscent of the cloth workers’ conspiracy of 1527. One of the conspirators, Peter Liebig, lived in this house and held a secret council. The plot was discovered and everyone was executed, and the following sign was installed on Liebig’s house: >D.V.R.T.1527< (предательская красная дверь).

George's Fountain

House of Napoleon – Upper Market 29, named after the French emperor, who hosted a parade of troops from the balcony of this baroque house on August 20, 1813. There was once an inn here that has seen many celebrities in its life: King Augustus the Strong of Poland and Russian Tsar Alexander I have been here. Now it is a tourist office.
Here, on the square in front of the church, there is a copy of the Roland fountain (1590) with a figure of a warrior (1670), the original is in the museum on the street. Neisse.

Trinity Church

Church of the Holy Trinity on Obermarkt – one of the most important attractions of the city. The monastery church was built by the Franciscans in 1234. When the church began to be built, both it and the monastery with it were located outside the city, and after construction was completed, they were inside the fortress walls, after the appearance of Obermarkt. About a century and a half later, the old church was rebuilt and a choir appeared in the Gothic style.

Only in the 15th century were the central nave with reticulated vaults and the chapel of St. Barbara completed. But a hundred years later, in the mid-16th century, the Reformation came to Görlitz, the number of monks decreased and the last of them transferred the monastery buildings to the city in 1563. They housed a school. It is still in effect today. The church also ended up in the city's treasury. Despite the customs of that time, the tower was completed and all the internal Gothic decoration was preserved. During the transition of Saxony to Catholicism, thanks to Augustus the Strong, a Baroque pulpit and altar appeared in the church.

Of the surviving decorations of the church, it is worth noting: benches for monks from 1484, in the chapel of St. Barbara the sculptural group “Entombment” made of sandstone by Hans Olmutz from 1492, the colored wooden sculpture “Resting Jesus” and the folded altar “Mary in the rays of the sun”, known as "The Golden Madonna", 1511. This fold is one of the most beautiful carved altars in the Upper Lusatian region.
In the former cloister, pay attention to the frescoes on the walls: the plot of angels playing music presents us with quite original musical instruments.

Schoenhof– the house of a wealthy citizen, built by the city architect Wendel Roskopf in 1526. It is considered the oldest and most beautiful Renaissance building in the region. Now the Museum of Silesia is located here, and you can not only learn everything about the history of Silesia, but also see the house from the inside with its state hall with Ionic columns and richly decorated rooms.

Town Hall represents a whole complex of buildings from different times and different styles. Near Schönhof there is the oldest part with a tower from 1378, and in the 16th century Wendel Roskopf the Elder added a building in the Renaissance style. Later, a huge building was added, decorated with the coats of arms of the cities of the “Union of Six Cities,” and the ancient parts were built on one floor. The new town hall dates back to the beginning of the 20th century, neo-Renaissance style.

Town Hall

The impressive spiral staircase leading to the main portal was also built by Rohskopf in 1537. Nearby there is a pulpit from which decisions of the city council were once announced and a statue of Justice, reminiscent of the justice that was also administered in the town hall building.

The column with Justice from 1591 is a copy, the original is in the city museum in the city art museum at the end of the square at Neusstrasse 30 in the “Baroque House”. On the right above the stairs is the coat of arms of the Hungarian and Bohemian king Matthias Corvinus. In 1488 he became the owner of Görlitz, when the city became part of Bohemia.

Statue of Justice and coat of arms of Matthias Corvinus

Unusual and tower clock . The two clock dials were made in 1524 after the completion of the octagonal tower. At the bottom there is a dial showing the time; previously there were 24 hours. Later, after the advent of 12-hour dials, it was replaced in 1584 by Bartholomew Scultetus. It still works today. He also connected the clock with the phases of the moon. The outer circle of the upper dial shows another 24 hours, the central part shows the phases of the moon, and the inner circle shows the calendar. Since the calendar changed, the middle part is not valid. On the lower dial in the center is the head of a sentinel, who opens his mouth and eyes every minute. This sculpture is associated with a legend according to which one watchman on the city wall was not very zealous in performing his official duty and was caught doing it.
The golden lion lying on top used to announce with a roar the changes in the phases of the moon.

Clock at the town hall

Houses on the Untermarkt built so that cloth could be traded. This is precisely what the shady arcades serve for, in the shade of which there are now numerous restaurants and cafes. The house near Schönhof was the center of the cloth trade of the entire region in the Middle Ages. The house has its own chapel and a late-Gothic hall with painted ceilings, which is now used for banquets.

Town Hall and Schoenhof

Baroque house, Neusstrasse 30. The former house of the Citaus flax and damask merchant Christian Amais, built in 1726. An opening in the roof reveals where a lift stood to transport fabrics to the upper floor. Nowadays it houses the scientific library of Upper Lausitz, with about 100,000 volumes, as well as a collection of maps and a newspaper archive.

In the city's art collection you can get acquainted with the interiors of the 18th-19th centuries, applied art of the 15th-19th centuries, and folk crafts of Upper Lusatia.

Variety of decor

Zeile they call here the houses standing in the center of Untermarkt, as well as the building of the Chamber of Weights and Measures attached to them from 1600. In 1706-14, the exchange building (now a hotel) also appeared. For a long time, it was in these houses that the commercial heart of the city beat. All merchants living here or visiting here met here. Here they measured out goods for trading on the market, here they negotiated the price for raw materials. In 1722, the Neptune Fountain was installed opposite Zeile.

The lower market has long turned into the real heart of the city. If earlier business and social life was in full swing here, now it is full of cafes and restaurants where it is pleasant to sit in any weather: the arcades are a lifesaver. The main city museums are concentrated here, so spiritual food is also present. It's beautiful here.

Whispering Arch

Whispering Arch- another fun attraction in Görlitz. This is a late Gothic portal at Untermarkt 22, which has an interesting acoustic feature: if you put your ear to one end of the arch, you can hear what is being whispered at the other end.

Another eye-catching building on the Untermarkt is former city pharmacy . This Renaissance building was built in 1550. Its special feature is the sundial of Zacharias Scultetus. By order of the city council, the clock on two dials should depict not only Görlitz time but also Babylonian, Nuremberg and Roman time. The master depicted all three times on the left dial, called Solarius. On the right side is a dial called On the right side, a dial called Arachne (spider) correlates the planets with the days of the week, solar houses and zodiac signs.

Church of St. Peter on the former Castle Hill

Church of Saints Peter and Paul on the former castle hill, dominates the city. Construction of the church on this site began almost immediately after the founding of the city, around 1230. The modern five-nave hall church with star vaults appeared in 1423-97. Thin graceful columns flow into a star-shaped vault, created by Konrad Pfluger, a student of the famous medieval architect Arnold of Westphalia, the author of the Meissen Albrechtsburg Castle, giving the entire structure an upward tendency and lightness. Both neo-Gothic towers are 85 meters high - at the end of the 19th century.

A fire in 1691 destroyed everything inside except the grille at the baptismal chapel. 30 door altars, books, liturgical objects and organs were lost. The rest of the decoration of the church comes from a later period: the altar is made of sandstone and marble with sculptures from 1695. The golden pulpit dates back to 1693, and the choir furniture is also from this period. In general, a fabulous sum of 235,000 talers was spent on the restoration of the church. The church also preserves a remarkable late Gothic crypt.

Dates back to 1703 Solar organ , a work by Johann Conrad Buchau (body), and the musical instrument itself was made by Eugenio Casparini (actually Eugen Caspar, a native of Lausitz). The name of the organ comes from the 16 suns located throughout the body. Moreover, 4 of the suns are fake, 12 are organ pipes arranged in the shape of rays. Casparini's organ was rebuilt several times at the end of the 19th century. However, the Görlitz solar organ is a unique instrument with a great sound. Concerts are held periodically, and once a day excursions around the church accompanied by the sound of the organ and a tour of the organ itself are organized.

Woad warehouse (Waidheis) is the oldest surviving secular building in the city, dating back to the 13th century. Whatever was in this building at different times. There was a school, a brewery, and a woad warehouse (hence the name). The building was rebuilt many times, added to (lukarns appeared), and changed. It was the first historical monument restored with money from that same mysterious donor.

Tower of St. Nicholas – a round tower 45 meters high, 7 floors. It was built in 1348. Now this is all that remains of the city gates located here, destroyed in 1848. Behind the tower is the Church of St. Nicholas, which gives its name to the tower and the gate with a cemetery where famous residents of the city are buried. There you can also find an original house-museum: the executioner’s house (by the way, one of the few surviving half-timbered houses).

On the outskirts of the historical center there are many different attractions. From the cathedral along the river you can walk to the park where there is City Reception Hall , built in 1908, by architect B. Zehring. Nearby there is a memorial sign marking the place through which the Fifteenth Meridian passed. It is Görlitz time that is Central European time.

Another interesting place outside the historical center is the so-called Holy Sepulcher . This is a chapel built in the late Middle Ages, replicating the Chapel of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem. The chapel was built at the expense of the burgomaster Georg Emmerich, who, due to certain circumstances, had to make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem and do a good deed. So he built the chapel, inspired by the original. It was supposed to remind of the victory over the Hussites, who ravaged this region.

Chapel of the Holy Sepulcher (photo from the Internet)

Thick Tower built in 1250, decorated with the city coat of arms: a late Gothic relief from 1477 with a double-headed eagle and a Bohemian lion. The thick tower, 45 meters high, was once part of the Frauentor Gate. Now you can go up to the observation deck and explore the city.

Opposite the Tolstoy Tower is located Chapel of St. Anne , built in 1508-12 under the master Albrecht Stieglitz as a personal chapel for the wealthy merchant Hans Frenzel, at whose expense it was decorated so that it looks more like a princely chapel.

On Marienplatz there is also Natural History Museum – the central museum of this kind in Oberlausitz. The museum presents a fairly large collection and exhibits (15,000 thousand models of animals, one and a half million insects, 12,000 minerals, a herbarium of 100,000 plants and a professional library of 89,000 volumes. The museum was founded on the basis of the Society for the Study of Nature, which was created back in 1881 and restored in 1991.

Natural History Museum

"Wertheim", "Herty", "Karstadt" , - no matter what it is called, this is one of the most famous buildings of Görlitz. The trading house was built in the Art Nouveau style in 1912/13, in the likeness of the Berlin trading houses Wertheim - a courtyard with a glass dome, galleries. By the way, back then it was called “The Ostrich Trading House.”

At the moment, this is the only large trading house from the period built before the First World War that has been preserved in its original condition in Saxony.

The interior decor of the trading house once attracted the creators of the film “The Grand Budapest Hotel,” and the filming of the hotel (hall) took place right here. Fortunately, by that time the store was already empty. He is still looking for the owner. There are rumors that there are applicants, but the names are not disclosed.

Church of Our Lady

On Poshtovaya Square, Postplatz, there is a three-nave Church of Our Lady , built in 1449-86. This is an invaluable piece of evidence of late Gothic architecture. The western portal is richly decorated with figures; above the arch of the portal there is a scene of the Annunciation. A detail worth noting is the stained glass windows in the west tower, which in 1735 was decorated with a Baroque finial.

A street runs off from Postplatz Berlinerstrasse, representing the main shopping artery of the center.

The street already represents the architecture of the Greenland era, it is half pedestrian: there are no cars, there are trams.

There is a curious fountain on the street, which stands as a reminder of the Hohenzollern cafe that used to be in this place.

Town Hall illuminated

Museums

Museum of Silesia . Open Tuesday - Sunday, 10:00-17:00. Ticket 7 euros.
Baroque house at Neissestrasse 30 . Open Tuesday - Sunday, 10:00 - 17:00, Fridays until 20:00 (April - December), 10:00 - 16:00 (January - March). Ticket 5 euros.
Kaisertrutz. Open Tuesday – Sunday, 10:00-17:00, Fridays until 20:00 (April – December), 10:00-16:00 (January – March). Ticket 5 euros.
Reichenbakhturm — Open Tuesday – Sunday, 10:00-17:00, Fridays until 20:00 (April – December). Ticket 3 euros. TO combined ticket with the museum in the Baroque House and Kaisertrutz - 7 euros.
Museum of Natural History. Open Tuesday - Sunday, 10:00-17:00. Ticket 3 euros. The first Sunday of the month is free.

The eastern part of the city was separated from Görlitz after World War II and is now in Poland and is called Zgorzelec. The border is formed by the Neisse River. The city was not destroyed during the war. The city has more than 4,000 well-restored architectural monuments.

In winter, in Görlitz, local time coincides with the official one, since the 15th meridian, by which Central European Time is determined, passes within the city.

Coins from the Roman Empire were found in archaeological excavations within the city. After the Germanic tribes left the area of ​​eastern Upper Lusatia during the Great Migration in the 4th and 5th centuries, Slavic tribes settled here in the 7th and 8th centuries.

At the end of the 10th century, the Meissen Margrave Gero conquered the Slavs of Upper and Lower Lusatia and incorporated their territory into the Holy Roman Empire. However, the territory remained for a long time a hotbed of conflict between Bohemia, Poland and the Holy Roman Empire. Görlitz was first mentioned in 1071 in a charter from King Henry IV. A few years later, the territory of Upper and Lower Lusatia fell under the rule of the Bohemian dukes and kings in 1075 as a pledge and in 1089 as a fief, who thereby became lords of the city until 1635.

Under the rule of the Askanii, who received the eastern part of Upper Lusatia together with the city of Görlitz in 1253 as a pledge from the Czech king, the city was fortified and expanded westward. In 1303 Görlitz received city rights. After the city was returned to the king, John of Luxembourg allowed Jewish settlement and gave the city several privileges, including the right to mint coins. The city soon became one of the most important trading cities between Erfurt and Breslau.

Based on economic power and royal privilege, on August 21, 1346, the cities of Bautzen, Görlitz, Zittau, Kamenz, Löbau and Laubahn founded the League of Six Cities in order to ensure provincial peace on behalf of the Bohemian king and future German emperor Charles IV. Legally, Görlitz differed little from the imperial cities.

From 1377 to 1396 the city was the capital of the Duchy of Görlitz, which was founded by Charles Karl IV for his seven-year-old son John von Görlitz. After his death in 1396, the duchy was abolished.

During the Hussite Wars in 1429, only the southern and eastern settlements were burned, the city itself was not damaged. In the 15th century, the city was involved in a dispute for the Czech throne between George of Poděbrady and Matthew I Corvinus. Subsequently, the fortification of the city was improved. Under the rule of the Hungarian king Matthew I Corvinus, the city flourished in the late 15th century. The era of prosperity lasted far until the 16th century. During this time, many houses and churches were built in the late Gothic and Revival styles.

In 1635, Görlitz, together with Upper Lusatia, was given to the Electorate of Saxony by the Emperor in exchange for debts. During the Thirty Years' War, the city was occupied by the Swedes and was severely destroyed.

In 1816, following the decisions of the Congress of Vienna, the city was included in the Prussian province of Silesia. This had a decisive influence on the political and social development of the city. In 1833, Prussian town law was introduced and the city saw a new period of prosperity. In 1848 the city was connected by railway with Dresden, Berlin and Wroclaw. This contributed to rapid industrialization. Numerous buildings from that period still define the appearance of the city south of the center.

In 1945, the retreating Wehrmacht troops blew up all the bridges over the Neisse - the city remained largely unharmed. According to the Potsdam Agreement, the city is divided into the German and Polish parts of Zgorzelec.

Industry

The large carriage manufacturing plant VEB Waggonbau Görlitz is located in Görlitz. Since 1998, the plant has been owned by Bombardier Transportation.