Hoyerswerda

Hoyerswerda, called Wojerecy in Upper Sorbian, lies among the waterways and marshes of Lusatia. The town was first mentioned in 1268, became a market in 1371 and received municipal rights in 1423. Its inhabitants gained the right to elect their own council. The Thirty Years' War brought hardship and a steep fall in population, though the town recovered later in the century.

In the eighteenth century Augustus the Strong gave the lordship to Ursula Katharina Lubomirska, who encouraged local trade and manufacturing in the town. King Augustus III of Poland purchased it in 1737 and used the castle as a stopping place on his journeys between Dresden and Warsaw. The Seven Years' War brought battle nearby in 1759, and the town passed to Prussia in 1815.