Veduta of the German town of Zittau as one of the pictorial attachments to the document "Analecta Fastorum Zittaviensium" by the lawyer Benedikt Carpzoff from 1716. Saxon Zittau was part of the historical territory of Upper Lusatia. Its history was shaped by important Czech rulers such as King Přemysl Otakar II, who granted Zittau town rights in 1254, and especially King Charles IV, who permanently joined Zittau and the whole of Upper Lusatia to the lands of the Bohemian Crown in 1348. In 1620, Zittau became part of the Saxon Electorate. After the Battle of the White Mountain, after which Protestantism was suppressed in the Bohemian lands, many Czech exiles found refuge in Protestant Zittau and influenced the religious and cultural life there.