Burg

Burg, east of Magdeburg, grew from an early Slavic settlement in the Jerichower Land. Mentioned in a charter of Otto I in 948, it became a town of the archbishops of Magdeburg and gained a reputation for cloth making. Churches, walls and towers marked a prosperous centre amid the lands contested by Magdeburg and Brandenburg. The Thirty Years' War brought plunder and plague to the region. The Peace of Prague assigned Burg to Electoral Saxony in 1635; in 1687 it was sold to Brandenburg-Prussia. Refugees from France and other lands settled here, bringing skills that contributed to local crafts. A road to Magdeburg, completed in 1820, improved the town's connections with its western neighbour.