Spremberg

Spremberg grew on an island in the Spree in Lower Lusatia, with a castle beside the town. Both were first recorded in a sale agreement in 1301. The town shared the changing fortunes of the margravate: after a period under the Brandenburg Ascanians and pledges to the Wettins, it came under the Bohemian crown in 1367. The Peace of Prague transferred Lower Lusatia to Saxony in 1635, and the settlement after the Napoleonic wars brought Spremberg to Prussia in 1815. Its Sorbian name, Grodk, recalls the fortified settlement by the river.