Lake History

A lake with a history

Where today, there are numerous bathers bustling around during the summer, a few years ago, there was an open-cast lignite mine. The huge bucket wheel excavator 1452 in Hagenwerder tells you about the 250-year old mining tradition in the region of lower Silesian Upper Lusatia. On request, former miners guide you up to 24 metres, showing you around this large mining equipment. In Königshufen, one of the residential areas of Görlitz, there is a church called Hoffnungskirche, reminding of the village Dorf Deutsch Ossig, which used to be located at the site of Berzdorf Lake, and in 1988, had to give way to lignite mining.

At the southern banks of the lake, the exhibition displayed  in the „House at the Lake“ in Tauchritz draws your attention to open-cast lignite mining and its impact on agriculture. Furthermore, the five rooms show previous life and crafts in this place. It is a project of co-operation between the congregation of the Evangelical Reconciliation Church in Görlitz, the Association for Local Heritage Tauchritz e.V. and the Association of Upper Lusatian Miners e.V.