Görlitz and Zgorzelec: one city, two countries, one footbridge
On the eastern edge of Saxony, a narrow river separates two countries and, in a way, one city. West of the water lies Görlitz, Germany, with one of the best-preserved old towns in the country. East of it lies Zgorzelec, Poland. Until 1945 they were one town. Today you can walk from one to the other in a couple of minutes.
How a city was split
The river is the Lusatian Neisse (Lausitzer Neiße in German, Nysa Łużycka in Polish). After the Second World War, the border between Germany and Poland was drawn along the Oder and the Neisse, and the river ran straight through the middle of Görlitz. The historic centre stayed on the western bank. The districts across the river, until then Görlitz's eastern part, became the Polish town of Zgorzelec.
For decades the line between them was a border of two socialist states, crossed with difficulty. The bridges that had joined the two banks became the edge of the map.
A town that stayed whole
Görlitz came through the war largely undamaged, which is rare in this part of Europe. As a result the old town still holds Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque and Art Nouveau buildings in a dense, walkable core, with thousands of listed monuments. The two big squares, the Untermarkt and the Obermarkt, are lined with merchants' houses, and the church of St Peter and Paul rises above the old town.
The same streets made the town popular with film crews. Görlitz has been used as a location for productions including The Reader and The Grand Budapest Hotel, and some locals half-jokingly call it "Görliwood". If a street seems oddly familiar, that may be why.
Walking across
The easiest way to feel the story is to cross the Old Town Bridge on foot, from the German side to the Polish side, and then turn around. From the Polish bank you get the best view of Görlitz's skyline. The two towns now describe themselves together as a "Europe city", and it shows in small things: shared events and people who live on one side and cross the bridge to work or shop on the other.
A practical route for a half day:
- Start at the Untermarkt and look at the house façades, then the Obermarkt.
- Walk down towards the river and the Old Town Bridge.
- Cross to Zgorzelec and look back at the old town from the opposite bank.
- Return the same way, or loop through the Polish side before coming back.
Why it is worth the trip
Görlitz and Zgorzelec are small, but they carry a whole century of European history in a few hundred metres: one city, a border, and then a bridge. That is the kind of place a self-guided walk is made for, because the story is in the streets and the river, not in a museum.
