Cottbus, Germany

Cottbus sits about 125 kilometers southeast of Berlin on the Spree River, where roughly 100,000 residents make it the second-largest city in Brandenburg and the unofficial capital of Lower Lusatia. A Sorbian-speaking minority lives alongside the German majority, and the 1446 Staats theatre was rebuilt in 1908 by Bernhard Sehring in Art Nouveau style. Prince Hermann von Pückler created Branitz Park in 1846, where two earthwork pyramids rise above the grounds, and the 1803 Spremberger Turm has 153 steps to its viewing platform. Since 1955 the BTU Cottbus-Senftenberg university has focused on engineering and energy research. What this Lusatian corner keeps revealing may still surprise first-time visitors.