Every design for Żary

Between the Bóbr and the Nysa Łużycka, where Lower Lusatia meets the Silesian lowlands, Żary spreads across a broad valley with steeper hills rising to the north and gentler ones to the south. It is the largest town in the Polish part of Lusatia and is often called its unofficial capital; in Lower Sorbian it is still Žarow.

There is a particular kind of pride in coming from a town that stood on the old Salt Trail between Leipzig and Wrocław, passed between Silesian dukes, Bohemian kings and Saxon electors, and was visited again and again by Augustus II the Strong. For locals, Zamek Dewinów and Pałac Promnitzów, the castle-palace pair of the families who once ruled here, are simply the backdrop to an ordinary walk through town. The Ławeczka Georga Philippa Telemanna offers a seat beside Telemann himself, and the Muzeum Pogranicza Śląsko-Łużyckiego gathers the whole borderland story under one roof.

If Żary is the town where you grew up, or where you still come back to, this is your map – the valley, the hills and the streets you know without looking.