Torgau, city of history

On April 25, 1945 Red Army troops met and shook hands with US forces on a bridge over the Elbe in Torgau. This symbolic picture was intended to send the message to the rest of the world that the war would end soon. Torgau will mark the 70th anniversary of this meeting with a celebration known as Elbe Day.

On Elbe Day, historical societies re-enact what happened in the last days of World War II. The day is also marked by a public celebration in the town. Thousands of visitors attend the ceremonies. Politicians and diplomats from the United States and the former Soviet Union also make appearances.

Picturesque Torgau in northern Saxony is always worth a visit and not just when the place is packed with foreign guests attending the Elbe Day celebrations. The historical town center has many preserved Renaissance buildings, including this town hall on the market place.

Castle Hartenfels is one of the most important preserved buildings of the early Renaissance in Germany. In the 16th century it was home to part of the royal house of Wettin, one of the oldest dynasties in Europe, who used to rule territories in what is today Saxony and Thuringia. The castle now serves as a location for changing exhibits.

Something special can be found in the inner yard of the east wing of Castle Hartenfels: the Great "Wendelstein" staircase. This tower has a stone spiral staircase that fell into disrepair over the centuries and had to be closed for over 20 years. In 2014 the tower and staircase were reopened to the public following a year of repair and restoration work.

The Great Wendelstein staircase is an architectural masterpiece. The nearly 20-meter high sandstone spiral staircase supports itself without the aid of a central pillar. The staircase in the tower is held up by six narrow exterior columns and the balustrade, which follows the route of the stairs upwards.

A local saying goes: "If Wittenberg is the mother then Torgau must be the wet-nurse of the Protestant Reformation." Torgau is the most important Lutheran site in Saxony. Back in the 16th century it became the political base of the Reformation movement. The support Luther was given by Protestant rulers is the subject of a current exhibition "Luther and the princes" in Castle Hartenfels.

When the plague arrived in Wittenberg in 1552, Martin Luther's widow, Katharina von Bora, fled to Torgau. But on the way she was involved in a coach accident and eventually died three weeks later in Torgau from the injuries she sustained. The house she died in is the only Bora-Memorial in Germany. Her grave can be found in St. Marien Church in Torgau.

Torgau does not shy away from its recent inglorious past: this East German memorial documents the history of more than 4,000 youths, who were regarded by the former Communist regime as delinquents and who were sent here to this so-called Jugendwerkhof, a juvenile detention center, for forced re-education.

Those who enjoy cycling and who might want to visit other cities from Torgau should make use of the international Elbe bike path. It begins at the source of the Elbe River in the Czech Republic and follows the waterway to its North Sea estuary in Cuxhaven.