Zittau

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Zittau (Sorbian/Lusatian Žitawa, Czech Žitava) is a city in the south east of the Free State of Saxony, Germany and capital of the Löbau-Zittau district close to the border triangle between Germany, Poland, and the Czech Republic. As of 2005, there are 26,224 people in the city.

The inner city of Zittau still shows its original beauty with many houses out of several aeras of German architecture. There is the famous townhall in an Italian style, the church of St. John with its medieval heritage. And the big storing building - one of the oldest of its kind in whole Germany.

[edit] History

Zittau was a member of the Six-City League of Upper Lusatia with other important villages of the region. At that time the city got a special title - it was called "Die Reiche" ("the rich") according to its high share of rich citizens. This once superior situation is only reflected in several extraordinary buildings and the rich cemeteries of the city. One of the most important trading goods of this early age in the 16th century was beer. Later in the 18th and 19th century textiles became important too, not that astonishing in the textile region of Upper-Lusatia. After the reunification in 1990 most of the big textile-enterprises that survived the time of the GDR nearly without any changes and any further investment closed down in just a few years. The city lost most of its economical strength. Because of its missing link to good infrastructure the city still suffers, but direct connection to the next motoway between Bautzen and Görlitz is planned. There are roughly 3500 students studying at the university of applied sciences Zittau/Görlitz.

Coordinates: 50°54′N, 14°50′E