13 Facts About Lusatia

Lusatia is a historical region in Central Europe, split between Germany and Poland.

Areas east and west along the Spree in the German part of Lusatia are home to the Slavic Sorbs, one of Germany's four officially recognized indigenous ethnic minorities .

Lusatia is the theme of the Sorbian national anthem Rjana Luzica .

Lusatia is the Latinised form which spread in the English and Romance languages area.

Upper Lusatia is today part of the German state of Saxony, except for a small part east of the Neisse River around Luban, which now belongs to the Polish Lower Silesian voivodeship.

Related searches

Upper Lusatia is characterised by fertile soil and undulating hills as well as by historic towns and cities such as Bautzen, Gorlitz, Zittau, Lobau, Kamenz, Luban, Bischofswerda, Herrnhut, Hoyerswerda, and Bad Muskau.

Many villages in the very south of Upper Lusatia contain a typical attraction of the region, the so-called Umgebindehauser, half-timbered-houses representing a combination of Franconian and Slavic style.

Between Upper and Lower Lusatia is a region called the Grenzwall, literally meaning "border dyke", although it is in fact a morainic ridge.

The city of Cottbus is the largest in the region, and though it is recognized as the cultural capital of Lower Lusatia, it was a Brandenburg exclave since 1445.

Only the southwestern part of Upper Lusatia, which included Lobau, Kamenz, Bautzen and Zittau, remained part of Saxony.

Lower Lusatia remained with Brandenburg, from 1952 until 1990 in the Bezirk of Cottbus.

In 2020, despite the loss of the Sorbian language in most of Lusatia, there are some Sorbian traditions and habits that still live on to this day.

Percentage of Serbs in Lusatia has decreased since the 1900 census due to intermarriage, germanization, cultural assimilation related to industrialisation and urbanisation, Nazi suppression and discrimination, ethnocide and the settlement of expelled Germans after World War II, mainly from Lower Silesia and Northern Bohemia.