Freiberg - Dom St. Marien

Freiberg came into being around 1162/1170. Between 1156 and 1162, Margrave Otto von Meissen had the forest cleared and several villages laid out, including Christiansdorf. In 1168 silver ore was discovered near Christiansdorf. The promise of special freedoms for the miners attracted numerous miners, traders and craftsmen, along with their families, to the Ore Mountains. Due to the wave of immigration, the city of Freiberg developed within two decades. This name is derived from the important feature, the freedom of mining introduced by Margrave Otto, i.e. the mining rights of every immigrant. Anyone could dig for the silver ore for a fee. The silver could only be sold to the margravial mint. The wealth of silver and the mint made the Electorate of Saxony a prosperous state.

Further development in the 13th century is characterized by constant growth after the municipality was almost completely destroyed by a city fire around 1225. A town school was established in 1260, which had been converted into a Latin school in 1515. In the 14th century, crises gradually emerged, which were mainly caused by the decline in silver production from the middle of the 14th century and by large-scale city fires. In the 15th century, Freiberg lost its leading economic position within Saxony to Leipzig due to the exodus of capital.

The Bergakademie was founded in 1765, one of the world's oldest mining engineering universities.

Freiburg became internationally known in 2015 for attacks on refugees. Most citizens are certainly ashamed of these attacks.

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Around 1180, the Romanesque basilica "Unserer Lieben Frauen" was built in Freiberg, which was developing rapidly due to the silver that had been found. In 1480, the church was turned into a Collegiate church. However, the college was dissolved after only 57 years due to the reformation of the Electorate of Saxony. In the great fire of 1484, the church was almost completely destroyed. The "Cathedral of St. Mary" was built at the same location as a triple-naved Gothic hall church. The cathedral was reconsecrated in 1512.

However, the new church did not have a church tower and remained in this condition until the end of the 19th century. In 1905, a competition was held among architects in order to be able to add towers to the church building. The outbreak of WWI subsequently meant that the tower plans were abandoned, whereby the fragmentary, late-Gothic character of the cathedral was largely preserved. The low north-west tower is in line with the north aisle; the south-west tower, raised in 1931, protrudes southwards from the side aisle.