Gar­den City Tour

The Gar­den Cities Tour leads on its 41 km cir­cuit from the first Ger­man gar­den city Marga in the Sen­ften­berg dis­trict of Brieske via the gar­den city Lauta-Nord to the youngest Ger­man gar­den city Erika in Laubusch. The cycle tour takes you on a ram­ble through the three listed gar­den cities, which tell of the wealth of the once grow­ing indus­trial region. With the rapid devel­op­ment of min­ing in the Lusa­t­ian min­ing area, the demand for labour increased. For the reset­tle­ment of work­ers, three attrac­tive fac­tory hous­ing estates with gen­er­ous green spaces and cen­tres with shop­ping facil­i­ties, inns and the­atres were built at the begin­ning of the 20th cen­tury, mod­elled on the gar­den city idea. The gar­den cities were built for min­ers and employ­ees of the Marga and Erika mines and for the work­ers of the alu­minium smelter in Lauta-Nord. The aim was to cre­ate a func­tional and at the same time peo­ple-friendly res­i­den­tial area that formed a con­trast to the work­ing-class neigh­bour­hoods of the time. The bright, spa­cious hous­ing com­plexes sur­rounded by gar­dens and green spaces exude a spe­cial charm, then as now. It's worth tak­ing a look over gar­den fences and behind hedges. 

Length: 41 kilo­me­tres

Start/fin­ish: Garten­stadt Marga in Sen­ften­berg OT Brieske.
Cir­cu­lar route via: Niemtsch - Peick­witz - Hosena - Lauta-Dorf - Lauta-Nord - Laubusch - Geier­swalde - Großkoschen - Sen­ften­berg

Road con­di­tions:
Well-devel­oped, asphalted cycle paths and cycle roads, few sec­tions on side roads, hardly any gra­di­ents.

Places of inter­est along the route:

• Marga gar­den city with exhi­bi­tion and gallery
• Lauta town park
• Lauta-Nord gar­den city with church of cul­ture
• Gar­den city of Erika with exhi­bi­tion in the Kul­turhaus
• Float­ing hol­i­day homes on Lake Geier­swalde
• Koschen Canal with lock
• Sen­ften­berg town har­bour
• Sen­ften­berg Cas­tle and Fortress

Gas­tro­nomic tips:

• Syr­taki Restau­rant in Niemtsch
• Peick­witzer Hut in Peick­witz
• Restau­rant Pal­la­dion in Lauta
• OSTufer - beach bar and water sports in Geier­swalde
• Son­nen­hof 1894 Café and Restau­rant in Großkoschen
• Seen­land­hof - farm café in Sen­ften­berg

Park­ing: in the cen­tre of the gar­den city of Marga directly on Briesker Straße

Cycle hire: numer­ous cycle hire firms in Sen­ften­berg

Maps / lit­er­a­ture: Lusa­t­ian Lake­land cycle map, 1:50,000, Sach­sen Kar­togra­phie, ISBN 978-3-86843-021-9, 6.90 Euro