Freiberg, Germany

Freiberg is a city of about 40,000 residents in the German state of Saxony, located roughly 30 kilometers west-southwest of Dresden in the Ore Mountains. Founded around 1162 after the discovery of silver, it grew into the largest silver-mining town in central Europe and sustained mining for 800 years. The Technische Universität Bergakademie Freiberg, founded in 1765, is the world's oldest school of mines. The late-Gothic Freiberg Cathedral, built between 1484 and 1512, holds a 1170 Golden Portal and the 1594 funerary chapel of the Wettin dynasty. Nearby Freudenstein Castle houses the Terra Mineralia collection of 3,500 specimens, and the Freiberger Mulde river flows about 124 kilometers through the region.