Zittau, Germany: a Baroque town of the three-country corner and its painted Lenten veils

In the far south-eastern tip of Saxony, where Germany meets Poland and the Czech Republic, the old town of Zittau preserves the wealth of a medieval trading city in stone. As a member of the Upper Lusatian league of six towns, grown rich on cloth and beer, Zittau was once nicknamed "the Rich"; today its market square is crowned by an Italianate town hall and ringed by Baroque facades. A town of around 25,000 people at the foot of the Zittau Mountains, it stands about 90 kilometres south-east of Dresden, with the Polish and Czech borders only minutes away.

Among Germany's medieval treasures, Zittau guards something rare: two great Lenten veils, the painted cloths once hung to hide church altars during Lent. The Great Zittau Lenten Veil of 1472, more than fifty square metres in size, is covered with some ninety biblical scenes; the smaller veil of 1573 is one of only a handful of its type left in the world.

Wealth in stone

The veils are shown in the town's museums - one in the Gothic Church of the Holy Cross, the other in a former Franciscan monastery - alongside the Zittau Epitaph Treasure of richly carved memorial plaques. Around the squares stand the great Salt House of 1511, one of Europe's largest medieval storehouses, and a series of ornate Baroque fountains.

Gateway to the mountains

Zittau is also the starting point of a historic narrow-gauge steam railway that climbs into the Zittau Mountains, Germany's smallest range, to the spa villages and rock formations around Oybin. With its borderland history written into churches, towers and townhouses, the town rewards those who venture to Saxony's far corner.