After writing so many articles here on MyGermanCity.com, sometimes I have to find a way to amuse myself.
Don’t get me wrong, I have the best job in the whole world, but that doesn’t stop from poking fun at places like Weischlitz — whose name sounds like the name of a brand of beer. Yeah, I’ll take a liter of Weischlitz on tap.
Ok, so all my jokes aren’t winners. ;-)
What is a winner is Weischlitz itself, a town of over a dozen little villages tucked away ever so nicely along the Weiße Elster in the Vogtland region in eastern Saxony. It’s also tucked nicely in the tri-state region meeting up with both Thuringia and Bavaria, with a stone called the Drei Freistaaten-Stein marking its official borders.
You’d never know it these days, but the area was once part of a 5km exclusion zone when the place belonged to East Germany. These days it lies along the Green Belt, which is a great place to go hiking. You’re not limited to just hiking along the former Inner German border, there are plenty of hiking trails like the Kemnitztalweg and Burgstein Lehrpfad. A really good one is the Kürbitzer Lindwurmpfad, which blends a lesson of history and geology.
Nature and a small historical summary aren’t all of Weischlitz’s attractions, how about a castle? Burg Türbel might lie in ruins these days, but in its heyday it protected an important trade route in the Middle Ages. And while it isn’t actually a real castle, the Manor Kürbitz is a unique design blending stone and half-timbered construction — but its exceptionally steep roof and small windows are what caught my attention.
The ruins of a Gothic 15th century church also caught my eye, but my favorite is the pretty village church over in Dröda, built in 1456. That’s not to take anything from the Salvator Church (built 1624), or the ruins of Geilsdorf Castle.
My historical rendition of what’s found in Weischlitz is nothing compared to what you’ll find out at the Museum of Cultural History — and how the Kienmühle has been operational since the late 17th century.
Or, you could just come to enjoy one of the town’s cultural events — like the Christmas Market or its Carnival celebrations.
You know, if Weischlitz was a beer, I’d have to ask for another. ;-)
