On the Hohberg hill in Sohland an der Spree, in the south of the Bautzen district, stands an observatory named after the 'worker-astronomer' Bruno H. Bürgel. It began as a labor of love by local residents and has grown into a genuine center of stargazing and archaeoastronomical discovery in the Upper Lusatia region.
Built between 1953 and 1963 by local craftsmen working unpaid in their free time, the dome building houses a lecture hall, a festival hall called 'Mondsaal', a library and club rooms. The surrounding landscape of gentle hills and forests offers a peaceful, quiet atmosphere year-round, and clear autumn and winter nights are especially rewarding for observing the stars from this hilltop location.
How to get thereFun fact: in 2018 a granite replica of the Kuckuckstein from Königshain, with its calendar-astronomical functions, was recreated at the observatory - it now marks the starting point of the 'Sonnenpfade' trail leading to mysterious stone formations across Upper Lusatia and the Czech Republic.