Cottbus

Cottbus is the second largest city in the German state of Brandenburg and the political and cultural center of the Lower Sorbian-speaking Sorb minority, with a population of roughly 95,000 to 100,000 as of 2024. Founded when Sorbs built a castle on a sandy island in the River Spree in the 10th century and first documented in 1156, it grew wealthy on wool production and the medieval textile trade; the largest bilingual city in Germany, with street signs in both German and Lower Sorbian, it is home to the Brandenburg University of Technology and to the Cottbuser Ostsee, Germany's largest artificial lake, created by flooding a former lignite mine.