CHEMNITZ

Chemnitz was founded on the river of the same name over 800 years ago. At present it is one of the biggest cities in Saxon region (257,000 inhabitants).

Nowadays Chemnitz is a big economic, scientific and cultural centre. It is the seat of the Technical University as well as numerous scientific institutes well known in the whole country. The city is also an interesting centre of culture and art. The regularly held festivals like the Saxon Mozart Festival, Theatre and Music Meetings, Jewish Culture Days become more and more significant. Chemnitz is an interesting tourist centre as well. The tourist route up to the Ore Mountains starts here, where silver was mined here in the 15th and 16th century, which was the basis of the Saxon wealth and the financial source of Dresden development. It was in Chemnitz where in the second half of the 16th century a doctor and the city mayor - famous Agricola lived and worked, who in his scientific papers - well known all over the world at that time- was concerned with mining problems. At present the tourist route has been staked off, known in Germany as 'The Silver Route', going through the Ore Mountains and linking the towns and mining centres connected with the mining past of this region. Numerous tourists visiting the Saxon region have access to many architecturally interesting monuments of the past. Undoubtedly a tourist attraction is the Benedictine monastery built in 1136 on the highest urban eminence called 'the city's cradle'... Nowadays the Castle Museum has been seated there. In the restored premises of the museum the exhibition presenting the history of Chemnitz can be visited. Concerts of secular and sacred music are held there as well.

It is also worth seeing the Town Hall with the reconstructed tower where you can admire a marvellous panorama of the whole city.

Tourists are also offered to walk along the architecturally interesting parts of the city like Kabberg or Sonnenberg which witnessed the interesting past of the city and the construction culture of the bourgeoisie in the period when Chemnitz was one of the most prosperous German towns. The remains of an industrial building as old as one and a half century are worth our attention. The wonderful stone buildings come from the period of development of the machine-building industry in the Saxon region, when Chemnitz had a world-wide fame as 'the Saxon Manchester'...

Visiting Chemnitz we can not forget its cultural output. The city is proud of one of the most modern opera buildings in Europe.

In numerous museums and art galleries we can admire many famous exhibitions, collections of paintings and sculptures. The City Museum has in its collection the works of an expressionist painter Karl Schmidt Rottluff coming from Chemnitz . It is also the place where we can see the exhibition of the biggest in Germany collection of textile art which testifies to the one hundred -year tradition of textile art and artistic knitwear in Germany. The following museums prove the significance of Chemnitz as the city of industry and technical innovations: the German Museum of Games, the Saxon Museum of Industry, the Saxon Museum of Vehicles, the Saxon Museum of Railway. Chemnitz is also well known for its sports centre with the international athletic contest, skating, many clubs and sports associations.

The partner contacts between Chemnitz and Lodz have lasted since 1972.

The active co-operation includes many domains:

economy (fairs, economic missions, contacts in the field of promotion)

culture (celebrations of the Festival of Chemnitz and the Festival of Lodz)

education (co-operation of high schools, language courses)

tourism (participation in tourist fairs)

sport (joint boxing and swimming tournaments, the marathon of Chemnitz)