MARTIN RANDALL TRAVEL

ART • ARCHITECTURE • GASTRONOMY • ARCHAEOLOGY • HISTORY • MUSIC • LITERATURE

Lusatia: ’s Eastern Borderlands Cities, palaces & gardens along the -Neisse Line

13–19 September 2021 (mh 887) 7 days • £2,290 Lecturer: Dr Jarl Kremeier

A rarely-visited and unspoilt area, yet each day presents something of European importance. Visit gardens laid out by one of Europe’s foremost patrons of landscape gardening, Prince Hermann von Pückler-Muskau. Old and important trading cities (Bautzen Görlitz, Zittau) which largely escaped wartime damage and are now well restored.

Historically, the ground covered by this tour was the territory of two margraviates of the Holy Roman Empire, to the north and Lusatia to the south. Lusatia maintained strong links to the throughout the Middle Ages and beyond. Continuing ecclesiastical relations with Prague led to the embedding of Roman Frankfurt, engraving, 1850. Catholic institutions in what became Lutheran territories. This association is evident in the Many towns and cities escaped without Schloss Branitz (Cottbus) is an 18th-century Baroque abbeys which are dotted around an much wartime damage, though misuse and palace in a very fine park designed by its area otherwise dominated by Gothic churches. lack of maintenance took its toll in the next fifty owner, Prince Pückler-Muskau; his tomb is In order to protect peace and order in Upper years – a process vigorously reversed in the last here, beneath a twelve-metre earth pyramid. Lusatia, six cities joined into a contract of thirty. But new towns sprang up in the GDR Continue to Bad Muskau where two nights are mutual protection in 1346, an alliance which such as Eisenhüttenstadt, built from plan to spent. lasted until 1815 when Lusatia was partitioned accommodate workers at the newly established Day 3: Bad Muskau. Spend the day exploring and territories were ceded to the Kingdom of steel mill nearby. Today, it is a perfect living the large estate of Prince Pückler-Muskau Prussia. From 1871 the whole of Lusatia became example of a socialist model city. a part of united Germany and was divided which comprises his first landscaped garden – between Prussia and Saxony. Itinerary vast, c. 600 ha – laid out at great expense from In the middle of the journey through this 1816, with lakes, extensive planting, numerous fascinating region we explore the creations of Day 1: Frankfurt an der Oder, small buildings and sixteen bridges. Two thirds Prince Hermann von Pückler-Muskau, a genius Eisenhüttenstadt. Fly at c. 8.45am (British of this garden is now in , the river Neisse for his further development of the English Airways) from Heathrow to Berlin Tegel and having been chosen as the border in 1945, but landscaped Park. Pückler (1785–1871) inherited drive southeast to Frankfurt an der Oder. since 1989 both sides of the garden have been two large estates in Upper Lusatia, at Muskau Largely devastated by allied bombing, amid open to pedestrians. (now a unesco world heritage site) and Branitz. the post-war architecture stand the impressive Day 4: Bautzen, Görlitz. Drive South to Both parks set international standards and gabled town hall and towering Brick Gothic Bautzen, a picturesque city in the Spree rank among the highlights of 19th-century Marienkirche. Precious original fittings include valley, renowned for its many towers. Once garden design in continental Europe. medieval stained glass and a double-winged the administrative centre and capital of the Since 1945 the rivers Oder and Neisse have altarpiece (c. 1495) in nearby St Getrude’s. Lusatian League, the culture and language of formed the border between Germany and Eisenhüttenstadt (formerly Stalinstadt), ‘the the Sorbs (a West Slavic ethnic group) is kept Poland, Poland having shifted about 200km first socialist town on German soil’, was alive here with bilingual street signs and the to the west (losing its eastern territories to the established in the 1950s. Overnight in Neuzelle. Sorbian National Museum. Continue to the Soviet Union). This part of Germany fell under Day 2: Neuzelle, Branitz. Neuzelle Abbey other major Lusatian power, Görlitz, where communist rule. Görlitz, the final stop on this is one of the most significant Baroque three nights are spent. tour, is a prime example of a city divided by this monuments in northern Germany. The natural frontier – in this case the Neisse – with Day 5: Görlitz. Straddling the River Neisse, medieval Cistercian Monastery was largely the Polish city of Zgorzelec across the river. the German side of Görlitz retains the old revamped in the 17th and 18th centuries under Bautzen and Zittau are the other significant city centre which is abundant in Renaissance Bohemian and South German influence and cities we visit. and Baroque architecture. A morning walk now forms an amazing architectural ensemble. includes the Upper Lusatian Society of Sciences

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Lusatia: Germany’s Eastern borderlands continued

with its beautifully formed library, founded Practicalities in 1779. Towards the edge of the centre is a 1489 sculpted recreation of the Holy Sepulchre Price, per person. Two sharing: £2,290 or (Heiliges Grab) which remains intact and £2,070 without flights.Single occupancy: unmodified. Across the bridge are the now £2,430 or £2,210 without flights. Polish former eastern suburbs. Included: flights (Euro Traveller) with British Day 6: Zittau, St Marienthal. At the tripoint Airways (Airbus 320); travel by private coach; where Germany, Poland and the Czech hotel accommodation as described below; Republic meet, Zittau is an interesting breakfasts; 1 lunch and 4 dinners with wine, example of urban planning with an oval water, coffee; all admissions; all tips; all taxes; inner city, Italianate town hall designed by the services of the lecturer and tour manager. Schinkel (1840s) and city walls which became Accommodation. Landhaushotel Prinz a Ringstrasse lined with 19th-century public Albrecht, Neuzelle (hotel-prinz-albrecht. buildings. The former Franciscan monastery de): 3-star hotel with restaurant picturesquely is now a museum displaying the Zittauer located opposite the Abbey. Kulturhotel Fürst Fastentuch, a vast altar cloth (1472). Return to Pückler Park, Bad Muskau (kulturhotel-fuerst- Görlitz via St Marienthal, a Cistercian nunnery pueckler-park.de): no-frills 4-star hotel with rebuilt in Baroque style after 1683. restaurant next to the park. Romatik Hotel Day 7. Fly from Prague, arriving at London Tuchmacher, Görlitz (tuchmacher.de): 4-star Heathrow at c. 2.50pm. hotel in restored 16th-century town house with original features. Single rooms throughout are doubles for sole use. Lecturer How strenuous? The tour involves a lot of Dr Jarl Kremeier. Art historian specialising walking in historic centres and parks, and a in 17th- to 19th-century architecture and lot of standing in museums and churches. A decorative arts; teaches Art History at the good level of fitness is essential. You will be on Berlin College of Acting and the Senior your feet for lengthy stretches of time. Average Student’s Department of Berlin’s Freie distance by coach per day: 54 miles. Universität. He studied at the Universities Group size: between 10 and 22 participants. of Würzburg, Berlin and the Courtauld, is a contributor to the Macmillan Dictionary of Art, author of a book on the Würzburg Residenz, and of articles on Continental Baroque architecture and architectural theory.

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