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At the southern end of the Spreewald stands COTTBUS , formerly the capital of one of the three Bezirke into which Brandenburg was divided in GDR days. It has a long industrial tradition, the twin pillars of the local economy being the textile industry, established by Dutch settlers in the Middle Ages and later developed by Huguenot refugees, and coalmining, which was the chief cause of the city's rapid growth in the nineteenth century. Because of this pedigree, Cottbus was seen by the Communists as something of a role model for the rest of the country, though its mixture of crumbling old tenements and Stalinist-style apartment buildings was not one that many others found attractive. Since the Wende , however, the city has done much to make itself more appealing, and has added a new dimension to its existence by becoming the seat of a technical university.

The heart of the town is the Altmarkt , which is lined with an impressive series of Baroque mansions, dating from immediately after one of the many disastrous fires which have ravaged the town. At no. 24 is the Niederlausitzer Apothekenmuseum (guided tours Tues-Fri 11am & 2pm, Sat & Sun 2pm & 3pm; DM4/¬2), a pharmacy which has functioned continuously since 1573 and contains a number of historic interiors. A block to the south, at Mühlenstr. 12, is the Wendisches Museum (Tues-Fri 8.30am-5pm, Sat & Sun 2-6pm; DM4/¬2), which has extensive displays on the history and culture of the Sorbs. Just north of Altmarkt is the Gothic Klosterkirche , whose tower is, most unusually, placed at the east end. A later and more visually impressive Gothic church, the Oberkirche , stands northeast of the Altmarkt. Its high altar, fashioned in marble, wood, alabaster and sandstone, is a hymn of late Renaissance extravagance.

Between here and the Spree is the Münzturm , where the town's first coins were minted. It's one of three towers surviving from the old fortifications: the others are the Lindenpforte , through which the path from the Stadtpromenade to the Altstadt leads, and the Spremberger Turm , at the far end of Spremberger Strasse, which goes south from the Altmarkt. On Schillerplatz, just outside the confines of the Altstadt, is the impressively large Jugendstil Staatstheater Cottbus .

Cottbus's star attraction, however, is Schloss Branitz (April-Oct Tues-Sun 10am-6pm; Nov-March Tues-Sun 10am-5pm; DM6/¬3) at the southeastern edge of town. This was the custom-built seat of one of the great characters of nineteenth-century Germany, Prince Hermann von Pückler-Muskau, who was the worthy successor to Lenné as landscape gardener to the Prussian court, as well as a writer, world traveller and landowning aristocrat in his own right. The Schloss itself, designed by the Dresden architect Gottfried Semper in a tardy Baroque idiom, contains displays on the life of the prince, who himself designed the wonderful Schlosspark . This features a whimsical series of buildings, including a pergola, grandiose stables in the English neo-Gothic style and, at the western end, a curious series of mock-Egyptian pyramids, one of which serves as his own mausoleum.