Königswartha, in Sorbian Rakecy (), is a municipality in the east 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 ...

. It belongs to the district of Bautzen and lies 20 km north of the eponymous city. The municipality is part of the recognized

Sorbian settlement area The Sorbian settlement area ( , , ; in Brandenburg officially ''Siedlungsgebiet der Sorben/Wenden'') commonly makes reference to the area in the east of Saxony and the South of Brandenburg in which the West Slavs, West Slavic people of the Sorbs ...

in Saxony.

Upper Sorbian Upper Sorbian (), occasionally referred to as Wendish (), is a minority language spoken by Sorbs in the historical province of Upper Lusatia, today part of Saxony, Germany. It is a West Slavic language, along with Lower Sorbian, Czech, Poli ...

has an official status next to German, all villages bear names in both languages. ''"Rakecy"'' means "men of the crab" (''rak'' being Sorbian for "crab"). The village was mentioned the first time in 1350. File:Kirche in Königswartha 3.JPG, Church in Königswartha File:Bahnhofstraße 4 Königswartha.JPG, Town hall File:Schloss Königswartha 2.JPG, Castle of Königswartha File:Milkeler Straße 43 Königswartha.JPG, Old house in Königswartha File:Kriegerdenkmal Königswartha 2.JPG, War memorial File:Hauptstraße 16 Königswartha 3.JPG, Rest home

Geography

The municipality is situated in the Upper Lusatian flatland. The village stretches along the river Schwarzwasser.

Villages

Several villages belong to the municipality: *Caminau (''Kamjenej'') *Commerau (''Komorow'') *Entenschenke (''Kača Korčma'') *Eutrich (''Jitk'') *Johnsdorf (''Jeńšecy'') *Königswartha (''Rakecy'') *Neudorf (''Nowa Wjes'') *Niesendorf (''Niža Wjes'') *Oppitz (''Psowje'') *Truppen (''Trupin'') *Wartha (''Stróža'')

Twin towns – sister cities

Königswartha is member of the so called "Kaolinstädtepartnerschaft". It connects cities, which are connected to the mineral Kaolin. The partnership was established in November 2004. Aside Königswartha the members of this partnership are the bavarian cities Schnaittenbach,

Tirschenreuth Tirschenreuth (; Northern Bavarian: ''Dirschnrad'', ''Diascharad'') is the capital city of the district of Tirschenreuth (district), Tirschenreuth. It is located in the northeast of Bavaria, very close to the Czech-Bavarian border. Geography Tirs ...

and

Hirschau Hirschau () is a Municipalities of Germany, municipality in the Amberg-Sulzbach district, Upper Palatinate, Bavaria, Germany. Geography Hirschau lies directly on the Bundesstraße 14 (Nuremberg - Rozvadov), 13 km northeast of Amberg and ab ...

, from

Sornzig-Ablaß and the city Mügeln, Nová Role from

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 ...

and Nowogrodziec from

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

References

Populated places in Bautzen (district) {{Bautzen-geo-stub