Veduta of Görlitz

Coloured copper-engraved veduta of the Lusatian town of Görlitz. This illustration from 1582 comes from the work "Beschreibung vnd Contrafactur von den vornembsten Stetten der Welt" by geographer Georg Braun and engraver Franz Hogenberg. Their work is the first ever atlas of town plans and veduta. Lusatian Zgorzelec, which is today divided by the border into German Görlitz and Polish Zgorzelec, originated as an Old Slavic settlement. In 1329 it belonged to King John of Luxembourg, who granted it numerous rights. Later, Görlitz prospered as the centre of the then Duchy of Görlitz under King Charles IV, who permanently annexed it to the lands of the Bohemian Crown in 1348. It was part of the Saxon Empire until the Thirty Years' War, during which it fell to the Electorate of Saxony in 1636.