Oybin


Oybin is a municipality in the Görlitz district, in Saxony, in eastern Germany, located very close to the border of the Czech Republic. It is a "Kurort", a resort or spa certified by the state, where people go for rest and recuperation.
It is most famous for its mountain of the same name, an exposed natural sandstone dome that towers above the town. The ruins of a medieval monastery lend a wild romantic beauty to it and it was a favorite subject of 19th-century Romantic painters like Caspar David Friedrich. Many bizarrely shaped geological rock formations can be found in the surroundings. The scenic narrow gauge Zittau–Kurort Oybin/Kurort Jonsdorf railway runs from Oybin to Bertsdorf, from there to the neighboring municipality of Jonsdorf and the town of Zittau. Oybin municipality has 3 districts: Oybin, Hain and Lückendorf.

History

In 1319 it passed to the Duchy of Jawor, the southwesternmost duchy of fragmented Piast-ruled Poland, and later on it was also ruled by Bohemian, Hungarian, Saxon and Polish monarchs. Following the defeat of the Protestant armies by the Habsburgs in the Battle of the White Mountain in 1620, many Protestant Czechs found refuge across the border in the hills of Upper Lusatia.

Culture and sights