Altenburg is a city in Thuringia, located 40 kilometres (25 miles) south of Leipzig, 90 kilometres (56 miles) west of Dresden and 100 kilometres (62 miles) east of Erfurt. It is the capital of the Altenburger Land district and part of a polycentric old-industrial textile and metal production region between Gera, Zwickau and Chemnitz with more than 1 million inhabitants, while the city itself has a population of 33,000.
The main sights of Altenburg are the castle, the Lindenau-Museum. The popular German card game Skat was developed in Altenburg during the 1810s and the founder of the famous Brockhaus Enzyklopädie, Friedrich Arnold Brockhaus, lived and worked in Altenburg between 1810 and 1817. Altenburg lies in the flat and fertile landscape of Osterland on the Pleiße river in the very east of Thuringia, next to the neighboring federal state of Saxony.
The town centre of Altenburg within the former wall has a planned grid of 12th/13th century origin, whereas the two old settlement cores were located around Brühl in the north-east and around St. Nicholas’ Church in the south-west. The area around the castle and southward on the eastern bank of Blaue Flut river has also been urban since the Middle Ages, nevertheless, it was located outside the city walls. During the 19th and early 20th century, Altenburg saw a construction boom and the town enlarged to all directions, particularly north and east towards the new railway station (opened in 1878).
Its time as a state capital until 1918 led to many interesting public and private buildings in Gründerzeit style, same as in other historist styles. Later, the town lost some of its importance and became a simple district capital in Thuringia. World War II left Altenburg unscathed, so all historic buildings are preserved. Nevertheless, the buildings’ maintenance was neglected during the East German period, instead, some big Plattenbau settlements were set up on the northern and south-eastern periphery of Altenburg. After reunification, most of the main sights and historic buildings were refurbished.
