Lausitz Festival — Concert Klosterruine Oybin 2026

Monastery Ruins of Oybin as a Concert Venue

The monastery ruins on Oybin mountain are one of the most spectacular historical sites in Upper Lusatia. Emperor Charles IV had a Celestinian monastery built here in 1369 on an isolated sandstone rock in the southern Zittau Mountains (513 meters altitude) — a masterpiece of late Gothic architecture in an unusual rocky location. After the Reformation, the monastery was abandoned, and a fire in 1577 left the ruins that are today among the most visited attractions in Upper Lusatia. The ruins of the monastery church — open to the sky, with its late Gothic tracery windows and dramatic rocky backdrop — are occasionally used for open-air concerts; the performance by the vocal ensemble Basiani on September 15, 2026, is one of the special occasions for which they open their gates.

Basiani — The Voices of Georgia

The vocal ensemble Basiani, founded in Tbilisi in 2000, is one of the world's most renowned ensembles for traditional Georgian polyphony. The members, all cantors or singers of the Georgian Orthodox Church, cultivate the three-part vocal techniques of individual Georgian regions — from the solemn hymns of the liturgy to the sharp dissonances of the Svan shepherds to the lyrical table songs of Kakheti. UNESCO declared Georgian vocal polyphony a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity in 2001. Basiani concerts in Europe are rare — the performance in Oybin combines peculiar architecture with one of Europe's oldest vocal traditions.

Program Selection September 15

The program is expected to include:

• Liturgical Hymns from the repertoire of the Georgian Orthodox Church
• Folk Songs from Kakheti, Imereti, Guria, and Svaneti
• Table Songs from Georgian feast culture
• Laments and epic narratives

The exact program order will be announced by the festival shortly before the concert.

Lausitz Festival 2026 — Context

The concert in Oybin is part of the 7th Lausitz Festival, which runs from August 25 to September 13, 2026, at 37 venues in Brandenburg and Saxony. The inspirational word for 2026 is "creative." The choice of the Oybin monastery ruins as a concert venue is programmatic: a late Gothic ruin — a creation of the 14th century, returned to nature by fire — becomes a stage for one of Europe's oldest living singing traditions. "Creative" in the sense of Charles IV, who combined rock and architecture; "creative" in the sense of the Basiani singers, who recreate ancient polyphony anew in every concert.

Oybin — The Mountain, The Village, The Railway

The health resort of Oybin is located at the foot of the mountain of the same name in the Zittau Mountains, directly on the Polish and Czech borders. The Zittau narrow-gauge railway, a 19th-century steam train, connects Zittau with Oybin in about 45 minutes — a journey that meaningfully frames the concert experience. The ascent to the monastery ruins (about a 30-minute walk) leads through fairytale-like rock formations.