Bautzen (district)

The district of Bautzen (Landkreis Bautzen, Wokrjes Budyšin) is a district in the state of Saxony in Germany. Its largest towns are Bautzen, Bischofswerda, Kamenz, Hoyerswerda and Radeberg. It is the biggest district in Saxony by area, and a member of the Neisse Euroregion.

It is bordered to the south by the Czech Republic. Clockwise, it also borders the district of Sächsische Schweiz-Osterzgebirge, the district-free city of Dresden, the district of Meißen, the state of Brandenburg, and the district of Görlitz.

The municipality's centre, north and east are part of the recognized Sorbian settlement area in Saxony. The Upper Sorbian language has an official status next to German in that area, and all villages bear names in both languages.

History
Historically, most of Upper Lusatia belonged to Bohemia. In the Thirty Years' War, it became a part of Saxony. Only the small town of Schirgiswalde remained Bohemian until 1809.

In the time of the GDR, these areas were within the Bezirk Dresden (the districts/Kreise of Bautzen, Bischofswerda and Kamenz) or the Bezirk Cottbus (Kreis Hoyerswerda).

A new district of Bautzen was established in 1994 by merging the former districts of Bautzen and Bischofswerda. The district at that time was less than half the size of the current district. The district of Kamenz (1,340km²) and the district-free city of Hoyerswerda were merged into the district of Bautzen in August 2008.

Geography
The district of Bautzen is part of the region of Upper Lusatia (Oberlausitz). The south of the district is occupied by the Lusatian Mountains, and the countryside slopes away to the north.

The Spree river enters the district from the southeast and runs through Schirgiswalde and Bautzen before leaving to the north. North of Bautzen, the river is dammed by a reservoir (Talsperre Bautzen, 5.5 km²).

At its widest, the district is 65 km east–west, and 63 km north–south.

Towns and municipalities
The following is a clickable map of municipalities in the district, in German:

This lists the towns and municipalities by their German-language names, with Upper Sorbian names in parentheses:

Coat of arms
The district's arms are identical to the arms of the margravate of Upper Lusatia. The coat of arms was established about 1350, when six towns of Upper Lusatia founded a confederacy. This loose alliance became a margravate under the Bohemian crown in 1378.