Self-guided Sightseeing Tour #1 in Görlitz, Germany

The Görlitz Synagogue is a Jewish congregation and synagogue, located on Otto-Müller-Straße, in Görlitz, Germany. Built between 1909 and 1911 in the Art Nouveau style, the synagogue was the main place of worship for the city's Ashkenazi Jewish community. Despite an arson attack, the synagogue was one of the few synagogues in the area to survive Kristallnacht, sustaining only minor damage. The damage was lessened as firefighters ignored the Nazi German orders to let the synagogue burn. With the city's Jewish population depleted, the unused synagogue became a ruin in the following decades.

Wikipedia: Görlitz Synagogue (EN), Website, Heritage Website

The Holy Cross Church was the first post-Reformation Catholic church building in the city of Görlitz and is located in the immediate vicinity of the synagogue and the city park.

Wikipedia: Heilig-Kreuz-Kirche (Görlitz) (DE), Website

Alfons Maria Wachsmann was a Roman Catholic priest and resistance fighter against National Socialism.

Wikipedia: Alfons Maria Wachsmann (DE)

The Görlitz department store, also known as Zum Strauss and Warenhaus Görlitz, is a listed building in Görlitz, built in the style of historicism and decorated with elements of Art Nouveau.

Wikipedia: Görlitzer Warenhaus (DE)

The Frauenkirche is a three-aisled hall church in the late Gothic style. The church was once located at the gates of the city of Görlitz. In the meantime, however, it is located in the middle of the center and shapes the image of the city center. In the autumn of 1989, it was the starting point for the prayers for peace in the city.

Wikipedia: Frauenkirche (Görlitz) (DE), Website

The Görlitz Theatre is a theatre building for opera and drama in the East Saxon town of Görlitz. The building is popularly known as the Little Semper Opera House due to its opulent interior.

Wikipedia: Theater Görlitz (DE)

The Kaisertrutz is one of the once 32 bastions, four of which are still preserved today, which the city of Görlitz possessed for defense.

Wikipedia: Kaisertrutz (DE)

The Reichenbach Tower probably built in the 13th century and first mentioned in 1376 is the western part of the historic fortification of Görlitz. With a height of 51m it is the tallest of the three fortified towers in Görlitz..

Wikipedia: Reichenbach Tower (Görlitz) (EN)

The Museum of Natural History in Görlitz, Germany is a natural history museum with focus on zoology, botany and geology. Since 2009, the museum has been part of the Senckenberg Gesellschaft für Naturforschung with headquarters in Frankfurt/Main. The main field of research is soil biology. In the years 2006 to 2017 the number of visitors was between 25,000 and 34,000, in the year of the 3rd Saxon State Exhibition 2011 it was even 47,000.

Wikipedia: Museum of Natural History, Görlitz (EN), Website

The Thick Tower erected in 1250 is part of the historic fortification of Görlitz. The 46-metre (151 ft) tall tower is the most massive tower in the city. Its walls in the lower part reach a thickness of 5.34 metres (17.5 ft), thus the name of a thick tower. Apart from it, the Nikolai Tower and the Reichenbach Tower are still preserved. In total, Görlitz had four large watchtowers and defense towers.

Wikipedia: Thick Tower (EN)

The Anne Chapel on Görlitz's Marienplatz was built between 1508 and 1511 by the council architect Albrecht Stieglitzer as a memorial chapel for the Görlitz merchant Hans Frenzel the Rich (1463–1526). It was dedicated to St. Anne – Frenceslas' patron saint. Later it was used as an orphanage and prison church. Today, the former chapel is used as a gymnasium and auditorium of the adjacent Annenschule.

Wikipedia: Annenkapelle (Görlitz) (DE)

The list of stumbling stones in Görlitz contains all 81 stumbling stones that were laid at 29 locations in the city of Görlitz as part of the project of the same name by Gunter Demnig. Three of them, for the Goldberg family, commemorate Jewish families in the former Görlitz Oststadt Zgorzelec. They are intended to commemorate victims of National Socialism who lived and worked in Görlitz.

Wikipedia: Liste_der_Stolpersteine_in_Görlitz (DE)

The Upper Market Square in Görlitz is the largest square in the historic part of the town. It was laid out in 1250 together with the Lower Market Square. Both are connected via the Bretheren Street (Brüderstraße). While the Lower Market is mostly bordered by Renaissance buildings, the Upper Market has many buildings from the Baroque and Wilhelminian periods. It is therefore the gateway to the historic part of the town. Important buildings on the market include Reichenbach Tower, Kaisertrutz and Holy Trinity Church (Dreifaltigkeitskirche).

Wikipedia: Upper Market Square (Görlitz) (EN)

The Holy Trinity Church is a Protestant church in Görlitz, Germany. It was built between 1234 and 1245 as the monastery church of the Franciscan monastery on today's Obermarkt. In 1564 the monastery was converted into a grammar school, the church served as a school church and since 1712 as a parochial church.

Wikipedia: Dreifaltigkeitskirche (Görlitz) (DE), Website, Heritage Website

The Brüderstraße in Görlitz is part of the historic city centre and has numerous buildings from the Renaissance. It connects the Görlitz Obermarkt with the Untermarkt and is part of the Via regia. It is named after the Franciscan brothers, to whose former monastery on the Obermarkt the Brüdergasse led.

Wikipedia: Brüderstraße (Görlitz) (DE)

The Silesian Museum in Görlitz was opened on 13 May 2006 in an architecturally newly composed complex that combines four historic buildings: the Schönhof, the Mittelhaus, the building at the Fischmarkt, both of which date from 1832, and the Hallenhaus at Untermarkt 4.

Wikipedia: Schlesisches Museum zu Görlitz (DE), Website

The Hallenhaus Untermarkt 5 is a protected cultural monument located opposite the town hall on the Untermarkt in Görlitz. Built in the 15th century, the Frenzelhof is one of the oldest hall houses in Görlitz. For the construction phase around 1500, there are a number of historical references that are associated with the name Hans Frenzel.

Wikipedia: Frenzelhof (DE), Heritage Website

The Schönhof is the oldest Renaissance-building in Görlitz, Germany. The building on Bretheren Street 8 (Brüderstraße) was constructed by Wendel Roskopf in 1526 over the surviving stone foundations after the town fire in 1525.

Wikipedia: Schönhof (Görlitz) (EN), Heritage Website

The town hall of the city of Görlitz has been the place of municipal administration, power and jurisdiction since about 1350; in 1369 it is documented for the first time as a town hall by a document of the Görlitz council. Its magnificent interior dates back to the Renaissance period. It consists of several connected buildings at Untermarkt 6–8 and is now the seat of several offices.

Wikipedia: Görlitzer Rathaus (DE)

The Ratsapotheke, also known as the Struve Pharmacy, is one of the best-known town houses in Görlitz's historic old town. The Renaissance building is located on the northern part of the Untermarkt and is the corner house to the confluence with Peterstraße. On the side facing the Untermarkt, the house bears two sundials by Zacharias Scultetus – a brother of the Görlitz astronomer and mathematician Bartholomäus Scultetus. The Renaissance gable of the house faces Peterstraße.

Wikipedia: Ratsapotheke (Görlitz) (DE), Heritage Website

The Brauner Hirsch is a baroque town house in the town of Görlitz in Upper Lusatia, Germany. The corner house is located on the eastern side of the Untermarkt and on Neißstraße, which continues towards the Old Town Bridge over the Lusatian Neisse.

Wikipedia: Brauner Hirsch (Görlitz) (DE), Heritage Website

The Biblical House is a town house in Görlitz's old town. The house got its nickname because of its reliefs on the façade on the first and second floors. They show scenes from the Old and New Testaments. It is located on Neißstraße, the connection between Untermarkt and the Old Town Bridge over the Lusatian Neisse and, along with the Schönhof, is one of the most famous Renaissance buildings in the city. In its western neighboring house – the baroque corner house at Neißstraße 30 – is the Görlitz Museum of Cultural History.

Wikipedia: Biblisches Haus (DE), Heritage Website

The Ochsenbastei in Görlitz is part of the former city fortifications near St. Peter's Church. While the actual "Tor an der Kahle" was demolished in 1834, the rotunda of the bastion and the ox kennel were preserved and are now protected as cultural monuments.

Wikipedia: Ochsenbastei (DE)

The parish church of St. Peter and Paul in Görlitz, known as St. Peter's Church for short, towers over the Neisse Valley. It dominates the historic old town with its copper-roofed high roof and the pair of towers visible from afar; it is located about 700 m west of the 15th degree of longitude.

Wikipedia: Pfarrkirche St. Peter und Paul (Görlitz) (DE), Website, Heritage Website

The sun organ in the church of St. Peter and Paul in Görlitz is a special feature. Its façade from 1703 is provided with 17 suns from organ pipes. The current work was built in 1997 by Mathis Orgelbau.

Wikipedia: Sonnenorgel (DE), Website

The Nikolaizwinger as one of the two remnants of the double city wall ring around Görlitz is a green area today. It is located at the entrance of Nikolaistrasse to the Nikolaivorstadt. The kennel originally protected the city of Görlitz together with four city towers, many bastions and mighty gate facilities. It is also the only one to be preserved the corner bastion bordering him, the Hothher bastion. The large, recognizable shooting range for cannons from the Hothherbastei indicate the use of the nicola and Neisse suburb. In 1953/54, the Nikolaizwinger was converted to the garden, according to the garden architect Henry Kraft as part of the national assembly. In the 1990s, these structures were taken up again in a modified form.

Wikipedia: Nikolaizwinger (DE)

The 45m tall Nikolai Tower probably erected before 1250 is part of the historic fortification of Görlitz. It is located inside the inner part of Görlitz between the old town and the historic nikolai suburb (Nikolaivorstadt). Together with the Thick Tower and the Reichenbach Tower three of four fortified towers are still preserved in Görlitz.

Wikipedia: Nikolai Tower (Görlitz) (EN)

The Nikolaikirche is a profaned Gothic hall church in Görlitz, the easternmost city in Germany. It is surrounded by the Nikolaikirchhof and is used as an exhibition and memorial space. The owner is the Evangelische Kulturstiftung Görlitz.

Wikipedia: Nikolaikirche (Görlitz) (DE)

The Jägerkaserne is a former barracks complex and architectural monument on the southern edge of Görlitz's Nikolaivorstadt, whose premises are now used by municipal offices.

Wikipedia: Jägerkaserne (Görlitz) (DE)