Görlitz – a pearl of architecture on the Lusatian Neisse, on the Polish-German border.
ZOO in Görlitz
Görlitz Zoo – animals at your fingertips!
time needed: 3 h
Route length: 2 km
Lower Silesia, lowlands
show more- Zgorzelec and Görlitz are two towns lying on the opposite banks of the Lusatian Neisse, connected by the Old Town Bridge. Since 1998, cities have defined themselves as one urban organism: Europe-City of Görlitz-Zgorzelec
- Görlitz is the city with the highest concentration of monuments in Germany – there are approx. 4000. Thanks to them, a walk through the streets of the city is a journey in time. Historical buildings are among the best preserved in Central Europe
- family-friendly zoo
- The Silesian Museum – a must-see on the city’s sightseeing route, allows you to understand the historical complexities of this multicultural region
- hall houses – an architectural style typical of the city lying on the via regia trade route
- large cultural events of the city:
Jazz Days
International Street Theatre Festival Via Thea
Silesian Pottery Market
Feast of the Old Town of Görlitz and Jakuby Zgorzelec
Silesian Christmas Market - built by Eugenio Casparini at the end of the seventeenth century Solar Organ in the church of St. Peter and Paul can imitate the voices of birds
- the most famous inhabitant of the city in the world is Jacob Böhme (1575–1624), a shoemaker, theosophist, mystic who developed the theory of “the unity of man and nature”. It inspired successive generations of thinkers and poets: Goethe, Leibnitz, Adam Mickiewicz, Czesław Miłosz, Tadeusz Różewicz. Jakub Böhme’s house is located on the Polish bank of the Neisse River, his grave in the Nikolaifriedhof cemetery in Görlitz
- location on the Oder – Nysa Łużycka cycling route – this 630 km long trail is one of the ten most popular cycling routes in Germany
- in the pre-war Goerlitz-Moys, and now in Zgorzelec, in the Stalag VIIIA POW camp, the outstanding French composer Oliver Messiaen was imprisoned. Under the influence of hunger and omnipresent death, he composed the apocalyptic “Quartet at the End of Time“, played for the first time on January 15, 1941 in front of the camp audience. Today, the “Quartet” belongs to the canon of contemporary music
- after visiting the city you can enjoy the charms of Berzdorfer See – a lake located at the southern border of the city
What to see in Görlitz and Zgorzelec
Christmas market in Görlitz
Silesian Christmas Market in Görlitz – a traditional pre-Christmas market with many attractions for Small and Large.
time needed: 2 h
Route length: 1 km
Lower Silesia, lowlands
show more
Being in Görlitz, you can often see works on a film set. Since the 50s, more than 100 German and international productions have been produced in “Görliwood”. For the film set for the “Grand Budapest Hotel”, the city won the main prize as the best film location of the last decade. (Photo. Stadtverwaltung Görlitz)
The typical architectural style of Görlitz is the hall house. The impressive cross vaults of such a building, covering the entire width of the entrance hall, allowed the passage of large horse-drawn carts. In the hall, merchants presented their cloths and other goods. In the old town of Goerlitz, 35 such unusual houses have been preserved. Many halls can be entered. (Photo. Ulrich Schwarz)
