Bautzen, Germany

Bautzen sits on the Spree River in Saxony with roughly 38,000 residents and serves as the cultural capital of the Sorbs, a Slavic minority that has lived in Lusatia for 1,400 years. The 1496 Ortenburg Castle occupies a rock above the river, while the 1450 Alte Wasserkunst used 17 water towers to lift river water into the town starting in 1558. The 1968 Bautzen II prison held East German political prisoners until 1989, and the 1853 Bautz'ner Senf mustard relies on a recipe unique to the region. How a single town holds all of these threads together is what makes it worth a closer look.