Haselbachtal is a municipality in the

district A district is a type of administrative division that in some countries is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or county, counties, several municipality, municip ...

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 ...

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 ...

with a population of 3,997 (2020). It consists of the villages Bischheim, Häslich, Gersdorf, Möhrsdorf, Reichenau, and Reichenbach.

Geography and transportation

Haselbachtal lies about 7 km south-west of the city of

Kamenz Kamenz () or Kamjenc ( Sorbian, ) is a town (''Große Kreisstadt'') in the district of Bautzen in Saxony, Germany. Until 2008 it was the administrative seat of Kamenz District. The town is known as the birthplace of the philosopher and poet Gotth ...

and about 35 km north-east 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

Bundesautobahn 4 is an autobahn in two discontinuous segments that crosses Germany in a west–east direction. The western segment has a length of , while the part in the east is long. Route The western A 4 starts north-west of Aachen, where the A ...

passes south of the municipality and can be reached over

Pulsnitz Pulsnitz (German, ; Upper Sorbian name: ''Połčnica'', ) is a town in the district of Bautzen, in the Free State of Saxony, in eastern Germany. It is situated on the small river Pulsnitz, 11 km southwest of Kamenz, and 24 km northeast ...

, which is about 10 km away. The river

flows through Haselbachtal.

History

Reichenbach was first mentioned in 1248. The town emerged during the German East Colonisation. During 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 ...

248 people, which made up most of the population of the village at the time, died of the pestilence. The borough of Reichenau was first mentioned in 1436, but is probably much older. In the years from 1429 to 1431,

Hussite file:Hussitenkriege.tif, upright=1.2, Battle between Hussites (left) and Crusades#Campaigns against heretics and schismatics, Catholic crusaders in the 15th century file:The Bohemian Realm during the Hussite Wars.png, upright=1.2, The Lands of the ...

s pillaged the village and destroyed the church. During the Liberation Wars, first

Prussia Prussia (; ; Old Prussian: ''Prūsija'') was a Germans, German state centred on the North European Plain that originated from the 1525 secularization of the Prussia (region), Prussian part of the State of the Teutonic Order. For centuries, ...

n, then

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

n troops were stationed in Reichenau. The boroughs of Gersdorf and Möhrsdorf were first mentioned in 1225 and 1264, respectively. They belong together since 14 February 1958. Bischheim was first mentioned in 1225 and was merged with Häslich on 1 January 1969. On 1 January 2001 the towns of Reichenbach, Reichenau, Gersdorf-Möhrsdorf und Bischheim-Häslich were incorporated into the municipality of Haselbachtal.

Attractions

*Park in Bischheim *Museum of

granite Granite ( ) is a coarse-grained (phanerite, phaneritic) intrusive rock, intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly coo ...

excavation *Church in Reichenbach *Church and town square in Gersdorf

References

{{Authority control West Lusatia Populated places in Bautzen (district)