Freiberg is a silver city, university city and the capital of mining. Founded around 1162, Freiberg soon became one of the wealthiest towns in Saxony due to the silver mining. Furthermore Freiberg has always been the home of many famous thinker.
Its historic town centre has been placed under heritage conservation and is a chosen site for the proposed UNESCO World Heritage Site known as the Ore Mountain Mining Region. Until 1969, the town was dominated for around 800 years by the mining and smelting industries. In recent decades it has restructured into a high technology site in the fields of semiconductor manufacture and solar technology, part of Silicon Saxony.
