DEUTSCHLAND	GERMANY
Bundesland: Freistaat Sachsen	Saxony
Landkreis: Görlitz

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Löbau is situated at an elevation of 258 m in the district Görlitz in the Oberlausitz region of eastern Saxony. The municipality has a population of about 18,100 (2005).

The market town was founded around 1200 by the kings of Bohemia and was first mentioned as Lubaw in 1221. At that time it already seemed to have the status of a town. In 1346 Löbau formed the ''Sechsstädtebund", a federation of the towns Bautzen, Görlitz (now divided between the German town Görlitz and Zgorzelec in Poland), Zittau, Lauban (now Lubań, Poland), Kamenz and Löbau. In 1547 Löbau losts all its territory beyond its walls. However, it could regain numerous villages and forests until 1576. After the Peace of Prague in 1635 the Lausitz region came in possession of the Electors of Saxony. The Sechsstädtebund was dissolved in 1815 when the Upper Lausitz region was divided and Görlitz and Lauban became part of the Prussian province of Silesia. Beginning in 1835 many new factories were set up in Löbau. The railway line between Löbau and Görlitz, part of the international railroad between Paris and Warsaw, was opened in 1847, which further boosted the economy of Löbau. A modern version of the Sechsstädtebund was created in 1991. In 1994 the former districts Löbau and Zittau were merged into the new district Löbau-Zittau. The administrative seat of this district was Zittau. On 1st August 2008 the district was dissolved and together with the district Löbau-Zittau and the city of Görlitz was merged into the new district Görlitz.

The Nikolaikirche (church of St. Nicholas) [top picture: centre background] was first mentioned in the 13th century. Its name appeared first in a document of 1450. The Gothic church was extended by the addition of a third nave in 1742. When the church was remodelled in 1884–1885most of the historic works of art in the interior were removed and are now exhibited in the museum of Bautzen. The height of the tower is 83.5 m.

The König-Friedrich-August-Turm [bottom left] is the landmark of Löbau. The octogonal lookout tower (height 28 m, diameter 4 m, with 3 galleries at 12, 18 and 24 m and a spiral staircase of 120 steps) was built within less than 3 months by assembling about 1,000 cast iron parts weighing 70 tons in total. The tower was built on the expense of a private investor. The costs were originally estimated to be 5,500 Taler, but eventually amounted to 25,000 Taler. It had been planned that the Saxon King Friedrich August would inaugurate the tower, but the king died in an accident during a vacation in the Tyrolean Alps so that the festivities had to be postponed. In 1870 the tower passed into the possession of the city of Löbau. In 1992 it had to be closed because it had become unsafe. The tower was disassembled in 1993 and was replaced by an exact copy of the original in 1994.

The Town Hall [bottom right] was erected at the beginning of the 14th century in the centre of the market square. The building was severely damaged in 1570 and 1710 and was subsequently rebuilt until 1711. The core of the building, however, still dates from the medieval original. In 1935/1936 the Gothic tower and the Baroque façade were reconstructed.