Tom`s travels: October 2025

I decided to head south of Berlin, into Saxony, and visit a couple of towns. My first stop was Wurzen. Once there, I got off the train and headed towards the city center on foot. I first passed by the church of St Wenceslai, a late 17th-century baroque church built over a previous one. It was closed, so I moved on, passing next to the Saxon milepost right next to it, and then walked along a street lined with nice old buildings. A short walk ahead, I reached the central square, the Marktplatz, with many historical buildings around it, including the 1803 town hall. Continuing on, I then passed a nice baroque gabled building holding the cultural history museum, and then reached the Domplatz. Here I visited the Cathedral of St Mary, originally dating to the 12th century in a Romanesque style, which was expanded the following century and then again in the early 16th century, receiving its mostly Gothic look with its two choirs, east and west, and the 42-meter-high towers. Traces of the Romanesque structure are still partly visible, but mostly the Gothic style has predominance. Inside were some nice fittings and decorations, including a medieval baptismal font, a bronze crucifix, and a pulpit from 1932. Once I visited the church right next to it, I then admired the castle from the outside. This 15th-century late Gothic castle, with some early Renaissance features, was the residence of the Bishops of Meissen until 1581, and nowadays, it holds a hotel and restaurant. After visiting the rest of the town it was time to move to the next one, Oschatz. Once there, the walk from the train station to the city center took quite a bit due to the distance. I reached the old town and passed through the nice Altmarkt, one of the town's squares, and the original point the city developed from. A short walk led me to the Neumarkt, now the town's main square. At its center, a bit to the side, the 16th century fountain, while around it some nice and important buildings, such as the beautiful 16th century town hall, rebuilt with a higher tower but in a similar style after a fire in 1842. Behind it stands the imposing church of St Aegidien, a neo-Gothic structure from the middle of the 19th century built over a previous medieval one. It was closed, so I moved on, walking some streets around there with nice buildings, and then passing by a nice 14th-century tower next to the scale museum. From there, I then moved on and passed another building, the Klosterkirche, originally a 13th century church, refurbished in its current gothic structure in the 15th century and once belonging to the Franciscan order. That one was closed as well so I continued on my walk through the rest of town. After a nice round the center I then headed to the southern part of town where i visited the O-Schatz Park, a former site of the 2006 State Garden Show which was repurposed as a park and zoo managed by employees with disabilities. I saw typical farm animals such as goats, sheep, pigs, but also deer, meerkats, and wallabies, one of which also albino. After that it was time to head to the train station and take a ride back to Berlin.