The district of Bautzen (, ) is a district in the state of

Saxony Saxony, officially the Free State of Saxony, is a landlocked state of Germany, bordering the states of Brandenburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia, and Bavaria, as well as the countries of Poland and the Czech Republic. Its capital is Dresden, and ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. Its largest towns are

Bautzen Bautzen () or Budyšin (), until 1868 ''Budissin'' in German, is a town in eastern Saxony, Germany, and the administrative centre of the Bautzen (district), district of Bautzen. It is located on the Spree (river), Spree river, is the eighth most ...

Bischofswerda Bischofswerda (; ) is a small town in eastern Germany at the western edge of Upper Lusatia in Saxony. Geography The town is located 33 km to the east of Dresden at the edge of the Upper Lusatian mountain country. The town is known as t ...

, Kamenz, Hoyerswerda and Radeberg. It is the biggest district in Saxony by area, and a member of the Neisse Euroregion. It is bordered to the south by the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, and historically known as Bohemia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the south ...

. Clockwise, it also borders the district of

Sächsische Schweiz-Osterzgebirge Saxon Switzerland-Eastern Ore Mountains (, ) is a district ('' Kreis'') in Saxony, Germany. It is named after the mountain ranges Saxon Switzerland and Eastern Ore Mountains. History The district was established by merging the former districts ...

, the district-free city of

Dresden Dresden (; ; Upper Saxon German, Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; , ) is the capital city of the States of Germany, German state of Saxony and its second most populous city after Leipzig. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, 12th most p ...

, the district of Meißen, the state of

Brandenburg Brandenburg, officially the State of Brandenburg, is a States of Germany, state in northeastern Germany. Brandenburg borders Poland and the states of Berlin, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Saxony. It is the List of Ger ...

, and the district of Görlitz. The municipality's centre, north and east are part of the recognized Sorbian settlement area in Saxony. The Upper Sorbian language has an official status next to German in that area, and all villages bear names in both languages.

History

Historically, most of

Upper Lusatia Upper Lusatia (, ; , ; ; or ''Milsko''; ) is a historical region in Germany and Poland. Along with Lower Lusatia to the north, it makes up the region of Lusatia, named after the Polabian Slavs, Slavic ''Lusici'' tribe. Both parts of Lusatia a ...

belonged to

Bohemia Bohemia ( ; ; ) is the westernmost and largest historical region of the Czech Republic. In a narrow, geographic sense, it roughly encompasses the territories of present-day Czechia that fall within the Elbe River's drainage basin, but historic ...

. In the

Thirty Years' War The Thirty Years' War, fought primarily in Central Europe between 1618 and 1648, was one of the most destructive conflicts in History of Europe, European history. An estimated 4.5 to 8 million soldiers and civilians died from battle, famine ...

, it became a part of

. Only the small town of Schirgiswalde remained Bohemian until 1809. In the time of the GDR, these areas were within the ''Bezirk'' Dresden (the districts/''Kreise'' of Bautzen, Bischofswerda and Kamenz) or the ''Bezirk'' Cottbus (''Kreis'' Hoyerswerda). A new district of Bautzen was established in 1994 by merging the former districts of Bautzen and Bischofswerda. The district at that time was less than half the size of the current district. The district of Kamenz (1,340km²) and the district-free city of Hoyerswerda were merged into the district of Bautzen in August 2008.

Geography

The district of Bautzen is part of the region of Upper Lusatia (''Oberlausitz''). The south of the district is occupied by the

Lusatian Mountains The Lusatian Mountains (; ; ) are a mountain range of the Western Sudetes on the southeastern border of Germany with the Czech Republic. They are a continuation of the Ore Mountains range west of the Elbe valley. The mountains of the northern, G ...

, and the countryside slopes away to the north. The Spree river enters the district from the southeast and runs through Schirgiswalde and

before leaving to the north. North of Bautzen, the river is dammed by a reservoir ('' Talsperre Bautzen'', 5.5 km²). At its widest, the district is 65 km east–west, and 63 km north–south.

Towns and municipalities

The following is a clickable map of municipalities in the district, in German: This lists the towns and municipalities by their

German-language German (, ) is a West Germanic language in the Indo-European language family, mainly spoken in Western and Central Europe. It is the majority and official (or co-official) language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Liechtenstein. It is a ...

names, with Upper Sorbian names in parentheses:

Coat of arms

The district's arms are identical to the arms of the margravate of Upper Lusatia. The coat of arms was established about 1350, when six towns of Upper Lusatia founded a confederacy. This loose alliance became a margravate under the Bohemian crown in 1378.

References

External links

Official website
(German) {{DEFAULTSORT:Bautzen (District) Districts of Saxony Geography of Lusatia