Freiberg () is a

university A university () is an educational institution, institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly ...

and former

mining town A mining community, also known as a mining town or a mining camp, is a community that houses miners. Mining communities are usually created around a mine or a quarry. Historical mining communities Australia * Ballarat, Victoria * Bendig ...

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, with around 41,000 inhabitants. The city lies in the foreland of the

Ore Mountains The Ore Mountains (, or ; ) lie along the Czech–German border, separating the historical regions of Bohemia in the Czech Republic and Saxony in Germany. The highest peaks are the Klínovec in the Czech Republic (German: ''Keilberg'') at ab ...

, in the Saxon urbanization axis, which runs along the northern edge of the

Elster Elster may refer to: Places * Black Elster (''Schwarze Elster''), a river in Germany * White Elster (''Weiße Elster''), a river in Germany and the Czech Republic ** Elster Viaduct, a railway bridge over the White Elster ** Elster Viaduct (Pirk ...

and

, stretching from

Plauen Plauen (; ; ) is a town in Saxony, Germany with a population of around 65,000. It is Saxony's 5th most populated city after Leipzig, Dresden, Chemnitz and Zwickau, the second-largest city of the Vogtland after Gera, as well as the largest cit ...

in the southwest via

Zwickau Zwickau (; ) is the fourth-largest city of Saxony, Germany, after Leipzig, Dresden and Chemnitz, with around 88,000 inhabitants,. The West Saxon city is situated in the valley of the Zwickau Mulde (German: ''Zwickauer Mulde''; progression: ), ...

Chemnitz Chemnitz (; from 1953 to 1990: Karl-Marx-Stadt (); ; ) is the third-largest city in the Germany, German States of Germany, state of Saxony after Leipzig and Dresden, and the fourth-largest city in the area of former East Germany after (East Be ...

and Freiberg to

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 ...

in the northeast. It sits on the

Freiberger Mulde The Freiberger Mulde (also called the ''Östliche Mulde'' or Eastern Mulde; ) is the right-hand, headstream of the river Mulde, whose catchment covers an area of in the Czech Republic and Germany in central Saxony. It has a volumetric flow of ...

, a tributary of the

Mulde The Mulde () is a river in Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. It is a left tributary of the Elbe and is long. The river is formed by the confluence, near Colditz, of the Zwickauer Mulde (running through Zwickau) and the Freiberger Mulde (wit ...

River. It is a ''

Große Kreisstadt ''Große Kreisstadt'' (, "major district town") is a term in the municipal law (''Gemeindeordnung'') of several States of Germany, German states. In some federal states the term is used as a special legal status for a Districts of Germany, distric ...

'' (large district town), and the administrative seat of ''

Landkreis Mittelsachsen Mittelsachsen (, ) is a district (''Districts of Germany, Kreis'') in the Free State of Saxony, Germany. History The district was established by merging the former districts of Döbeln (district), Döbeln, Freiberg (district), Freiberg and Mit ...

'' (district Central Saxony). Freiberg is connected to Dresden by the S3 line of the

Dresden S-Bahn The Dresden S-Bahn is a network of S-Bahn-type commuter train services in Dresden and the surrounding area. It is commissioned by Verkehrsverbund Oberelbe (VVO) from DB Regio ''Verkehrsbetrieb Südostsachsen'' and currently consists of three serv ...

. The entire historic center of the Silver City is under monument protection, and together with local monuments of mining history such as the ''Reiche Zeche'' ore mine, it has been part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site Erzgebirge/Krušnohoří Mining Region since 2019 due to its exceptional testimony to the development of mining techniques across many centuries.

Freiberg University of Mining and Technology The Technische Universität Bergakademie Freiberg (abbreviation: TU Bergakademie Freiberg, TUBAF) is a public Institute of technology, university of technology with 3,471 students in the city of Freiberg, Saxony, Freiberg, Saxony, Germany. The u ...

(''Technische Universität Bergakademie Freiberg''), founded in 1765, is the oldest university of mining and metallurgy in the world. Until 1969, the town was dominated for around 800 years by the

mining Mining is the Resource extraction, extraction of valuable geological materials and minerals from the surface of the Earth. Mining is required to obtain most materials that cannot be grown through agriculture, agricultural processes, or feasib ...

and

smelting Smelting is a process of applying heat and a chemical reducing agent to an ore to extract a desired base metal product. It is a form of extractive metallurgy that is used to obtain many metals such as iron-making, iron, copper extraction, copper ...

industries. Since then it has restructured into a

high technology High technology (high tech or high-tech), also known as advanced technology (advanced tech) or exotechnology, is technology that is at the cutting edge: the highest form of technology available. It can be defined as either the most complex or ...

site in the fields of

semiconductor A semiconductor is a material with electrical conductivity between that of a conductor and an insulator. Its conductivity can be modified by adding impurities (" doping") to its crystal structure. When two regions with different doping level ...

manufacture and

solar technology Solar energy is the radiant energy from the Sun's light and heat, which can be harnessed using a range of technologies such as solar electricity, solar thermal energy (including solar water heating) and solar architecture. It is an essentia ...

, part of

Silicon Saxony Silicon Saxony is a registered industry association of around 600 companies in the microelectronics and related high-tech sectors in Saxony, Germany. Many of those firms are situated in the north of Dresden. The term "Silicon Saxony" originated ...

Freiberg Cathedral The Freiberg Cathedral or Cathedral of St Mary () is a church of the Evangelical-Lutheran Church of Saxony in Freiberg, Saxony, Freiberg in Saxony. The term Duomo, Dom, a German synecdoche used for collegiate churches and cathedrals alike, is ofte ...

is one of the most richly furnished houses of worship in Saxony and contains important works of art such as the tulip pulpit, two

Gottfried Silbermann Gottfried Silbermann (January 14, 1683 – August 4, 1753) was a German builder of keyboard instruments. He built harpsichords, clavichords, organ (music), organs, and fortepianos; his modern reputation rests mainly on the latter two. Life Very ...

organs, the choir, which was converted into a burial place for the Albertines, and the Golden Gate (''Goldene Pforte''), of which exist three replicas in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Moscow and Budapest. Freiberg's christmas market ''Freiberger Christmarkt'' is typical for christmas markets in the Ore Mountain region, which are characterized by a strong connection to mining and the typical christmas decorations of this region like '' Raachermannel'', ''

Schwibbögen A ''Schwibbogen'' () is a decorative candle-holder from the Ore Mountains region of Saxony, Germany. The first metal ''schwibbogen'' was made in 1740 in Johanngeorgenstadt. The early candle arches consisted of a single forged piece of black m ...

'' and

Christmas pyramids Christmas pyramids () are Christmas decorations that have their roots in the folklore and customs of the Ore Mountain region of Germany, but which have become popular internationally. They comprise a decorated pyramidal outer frame with candle h ...

Geography

Location

The town lies on the northern

declivity {{Short pages monitor Towns in the Ore Mountains Mittelsachsen Mining communities in Germany