Löbau (Sorbian Lubij), the chief town of a district, lies to the west of the Löbauer Berg (449 m/1,473ft), some 20km/12.5mi southwest of Görlitz. A cloth-making town, it was also the largest market for yarn in Upper Lusatia and the second-largest market for corn in Saxony, though always overshadowed by its more powerful sister towns in the Lusatian League of Six Cities, Bautzen and Görlitz.
In Löbau can be found the town hall, a church, a cemetary and a municipal museum.
There are a number of notable Baroque gravestones and monuments in Löbau's Old Cemetery, to the south of the old town. Particularly fine is the burial vault of a great merchant prince, M. Lücke (1733).
To the east of the Town Hall in Löbau is the Johanniskirche, an aisleless Early Gothic church with 17th and 18th C. alterations. Until the Reformation it belonged to a Franciscan friary, in the refectory of which the meetings of the League of Six Cities were held in the 14th and 15th centuries.
The Baroque Town Hall (1711) in Löbau has preserved a Late Gothic tower and vaulted cellar. The most handsome burghers' houses in the Markt are Nos. 16 and 17 on the north side (Baroque), No. 14 on the west side (Late Renaissance) and No. 3 on the east side (neo-classical).
Read More
Read Less
