DEUTSCHLAND	GERMANY
Bundesland: Freistaat Sachsen	Saxony
Landkreis: Bautzen

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Bautzen (until 1868 Budissin) is situated at an elevation of 204 m on a plateau above the river Spree in eastern Saxony. Bautzen is the administrative seat of the district of the same name and has a population of about 42,100 (2004).

The castle Ortenburg in the old town was first mentioned in 1002 as civitas budusin as the centre of the Upper Lausitz region. Shortly after that it came in possession of the duchy of Poland and remained Polish until 1031. A peace treaty between the Holy Roman Empire and Poland was signed in the castle in 1018. The town which began to develop next to the castle profited from the favourable location at the site where the Via Regia, the important trading route from the Rhineland to Silesia, crossed the river. Until 1635 the Ortenburg was seat of the bailiff of the Upper Lausitz. In 1346 Bautzen was one of six towns that founded the "Oberlausitzer Sechsstädtebund" (Bautzen, Zittau, Görlitz, Kamenz, Löbau and Lauban (Lubań, PL)). Between 1469 and 1490 Bautzen belonged to the Hungarian crown before it passed to the Kingdom of Bohemia. Between 1520 and 1525 the Reformation was introduced into the town, only the collegiate chapter of St. Peter remained Catholic. During the War of Schmalkalden of 1546/47 the Protestant towns of the Upper Lausitz Union were forced to support the Catholic sovereign, Emperor Ferdinand I, King of Bohemia. Because the towns had only provided troops for a limited period, Ferdinand punished the six towns by stripping them of their privileges and their entire estates. In 1623 the Upper Lausitz was pawned to Saxony. During the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) the town was almost completely destroyed.

During the Napoleonic wars, the French army defeated the coalition forces in a battle that took lpace in 1813 at Wurzen (today part of Weißenberg) near Bautzen. Since Saxony had supported Napoleon, the Congress of Vienna (1815) decided that large parts of the country including about half of the Upper Lausitz with Görlitz and Lauban had to be ceded to Prussia. Bautzen and the three other towns of the former Upper Lausitz Union, however, remained with Saxony. The modern German name of the town, Bautzen, was only made official in 1866; before that, the official name was Budissin.

The church of St. Peter (Dom Sankt Petri) [top picture: centre background] is the largest church in Germany that is used simultaneously by the Protestant and Catholic communities and the only such church in eastern Germany. The simultaneous use by both denominations began already during the Reformation. The first church on this site had already been built around 1000. The choir of the church of the collegiate convent was consecrated in 1221. Since 1237 St. Peter is the patron saint of the church. The present Late Gothic church dates from the second half of the 15th century. In 1921 the Catholic bishopric of Meißen was recreated with Bautzen as its seat. The church thus became a cathedral church ('Dom'), the only example of a cathedral in Germany used by both confessions. The seat of the diocese was moved to Dresden in 1980 and now is called diocese of Dresden-Meißen.

The bottom left picture on glass no. 1854 shows the Reichenturm (Sorbic: Bohata wěža). The tower is located in Kornmarkt square, on the eastern edge of the historic city. Its construction began in 1490. The lower part of the tower was completed in 1492. The upper part at that time was a wooden construction. At the time the tower was part of the city's fortifications. In 1593 the wooden part was demolished and was rebuilt. At the same time a prison cell was added to the city side of the tower. In 1620, During the siege of Bautzen by the Saxon army during the Thirty Years' War the tower caught fire and the wooden construction burnt down. It took until 1627 to start again with its reconstruction, but in 1638 it was burnt down again during another siege by Saxon and Swedish troops. After the war, the tower was reconstructed in 1663, only to burn again in 1686 during a fire that destroyed parts of the town. Rebuilt in 1696, it burnt again in 1709. This time, the reconstruction was finally carried out in massive stone instead of wood. The reconstruction was financed by a lottery in 1714/1715. The Baroque design was created by the architect Johann Christoph von Naumann. The most recent renvation took place in 1991–1993.

The bottom right picture on glass no. 1854 shows the Alte Wasserkunst (Sorbic: Stara wodarnja), located neaer the Mühltor gate at the edge of the historic city. The structure was part of the city's water supply system. It was constructed in 1558 in place of an earlier wooden construction that had been built in 1495/1496. Its purpose was pumping clean water from the river Spree. In 1597 a second water scoop was added. In 1606 the 'Neue Wasserkunst' (not depicted on the glass) was built for the same purpose. After 1798 the original, wooden, pipes were replaced by iron pipes that were cast in Lauchhammer. The tower (47 metres high) also formed a part of the city's fortifications. The Wasserkunst was shut down only in 1965. Today it houses a technical museum. A modern turbine for minor power generation has replaced the original wooden water wheel. A thorough renovation of the old structure took place in 1982–1984.