Marienberg (Saxony)

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Marienberg is a town in Germany. It is the district capital of the Mittlerer Erzgebirgskreis (Central Ore Mountains district) in the southern part of Saxony. As of 2006, the town had 14,291 inhabitants.

1 Location and design
2 History
- 2.1 Town districts
3 Gallery
4 External links

[edit] Location and design

The town is situated on a plateau north of the mountain ridge of the Ore Mountains, at an elevation between 460 and 891 m above sea level. It is approximately 16 km southeast of Chemnitz, to which it is connected via the Flöha-Reitzenhain railway.

The historical city center follows a rectangular plan, imitating Italian renaissance. The center is the market square, a square of 1.7 ha area.

Marienberg and Pobershau are joined in the Verwaltungsgemeinschaft Marienberg.

[edit] History

The first documented evidence related to Marienberg is the mentioning of the village Wüstenschletta as Sletyn in 1323. However, the town was founded on 27 April 1521 by Henry IV, Duke of Saxony after silver had been found in 1519. Marienberg was granted city rights in 1523 and had its own board of mines since 1525. In 1555, there were more than a thousand mines in the Marienberg area. After the exhaustion of the silver, copper and tin were mined in the 17th century. The last mine was closed in 1899. Today, tourism is an important sector of the economy.