Leipzig is the largest city in Saxony, Germany, with around 630,000 people. First mentioned in 1015, it developed at the intersection of major European trade routes and became an important commercial and trade-fair city during the Middle Ages. Leipzig also has an exceptional musical heritage: Johann Sebastian Bach worked here from 1723 until his death in 1750 and is buried at St Thomas Church. Major landmarks include the Old Town Hall, St Nicholas Church and the enormous 91-metre Monument to the Battle of the Nations, commemorating Napoleon’s defeat near Leipzig in 1813. The city also played a decisive role in the collapse of East Germany, with the peaceful Monday demonstrations of 1989 attracting tens of thousands of protesters and helping trigger the wider Peaceful Revolution. Leipzig has a particularly strong alternative and dark-music culture and has hosted Wave-Gotik-Treffen since 1992, an annual festival spread across dozens of venues throughout the city and one of the world’s largest gatherings for goth, industrial, darkwave and related music.

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