Portrait of Bautzen
Facts and figures
Twinned with Heidelberg | 1. | since 1991 |
Location | 2. | Located in the Oberlausitz region of eastern Saxony between Dresden and the Polish border (approx. 50 kilometers in each direction), Bautzen is known for its medieval architecture as the city of towers and bastions. |
Population | 3. | 39.631 (last updated: 2018) |
Time difference | 4. | None |
Currency | 5. | Euro |
Official languages | 6. | German, Sorbian |
University/students | 7. | State Academy of Bautzen (Vocational Academy of Saxony) with about 500 students |
Key industries | 8. | Services, manufacturing |
Noteworthy | 9. | Some five to ten percent of the population of Bautzen is of Sorbian descent. The Sorbs are the smallest in number of the Slavic peoples. More than 1,000 years ago, Slavic tribes settled in large parts of Central and Northern Germany. Today, there remain only some 60,000 Germans of Sorbian descent in the Lausitz region. Bautzen is the seat of various Sorbian cultural and political institutions, including schools and kindergartens, in which the children can learn and speak Sorbian, the Sorbian Institute and the Domowina, the umbrella organization of the Sorbs in the Lausitz region. |
Sister cities | 10. | In addition to Heidelberg there ar four more sister cities: Worms (Germany); Dreux (France); Jablonec nad Nisou (Czech Republic); Jelenia Góra (Poland) |