Klosterwasser

Mouth of the monastery water ( left) in the Schwarze Elster

The monastery water, Sorbian Klóšterska woda, is a right tributary of the Black Elster in eastern Saxony. It traverses the core of today's Sorbian settlement area in the district of Bautzen in Upper Lusatia. The river got its name from the monastery of St. Mary Catholic star and flows mainly through areas that were formerly in the possession.

Course

The river rises to about 280 m above sea level. Sea level at the western end of the village Burkau in Bischofswerda, flows eastward and joins in the center with another Quellarm, which rises on the northwest slope of the butter mountain. It flows through the village further west to east and then turns northward. Before Ostro, the next place on the running stream, the deep valley of the monastery water forms a natural basis for one of the best preserved fortifications from Slavic Siedelzeit that " Ostroer Lair". It rises on the eastern side of the river, while the location Ostro is on the west side.

In Panschwitz -Kuckau the monastery water flows around the south and west of the eponymous monastery of St. Mary Star and passes through the " Kuckauer Lair", at whose investment has also used the river as a natural line of defense. Just behind the village wanted to build a bridge for the railway line began in 1912 Radibor -Kamenz ( Saxon Northeastern Railway ), whose construction but already began to falter in the early stages and was finally stopped during the First World War.

In Räckelwitz the river leaves the Sorbian " Oberland " ( Horyany ) and enters the "Low Country " ( Delany ) a. The local floodplain of the river was almost completely deforested since the Middle Ages. In addition, the monastery water was straightened in favor of agriculture after 1945 and regulated. The swampy floodplains and riparian forests have almost disappeared here. The only exception is the nature reserve Lasker floodplain forest. Here can be found on about two kilometers in length, the last section of the natural floodplain.

Until 1945, the river formed at a few hundred meters north of Schönau the border between the kingdoms of Saxony and Prussia.

In the monastery cotta water flows at about 130 m above sea level. NN in the Schwarze Elster.

Others

The Management Association of Am Kloster water is named after the river. It includes the five core communities of today Sorbian settlement area.

In a flood on August 3, 1991, the monastery of St. Mary Star was under water and the centuries-old monastery nursery was destroyed.