Every design for Görlitz

Görlitz is the easternmost town in Germany, and the river that marks that edge, the Lusatian Neisse, runs straight through what was once a single town: since 1945 the districts on the far bank have been Zgorzelec, in Poland. Above it all rises the Landeskrone, the highest point within the town, once the stronghold of a Slavic tribe.

What makes the place unique is how much of it survived. Görlitz came through the Second World War almost untouched, so its streets read like a lesson in Central European building: late Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque townhouses such as the Schönhof and the Biblisches Haus, ringed by broad Gründerzeit quarters. Film crews love it, which is why the nickname Görliwood stuck.

Growing up here meant the Silesian Christmas Market in December, school trips to the Kaisertrutz, the Sonnenorgel in Sankt Peter und Paul, and walks over to the other half of the Euro City. This map holds both banks of that childhood.