1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Riesa

RIESA, a town of Germany, in the kingdom of Saxony, pleasantly situated on the left bank of the Elbe, 30 m. N.W. of Dresden, on the main line of railway to Leipzig, and at the junction of lines to Chemnitz, Elsterwerda and Nossen. Pop. 14,073. The river is here crossed by a fine bridge, a sandstone and iron structure, carrying both railway and road, and replacing the one carried away by floods in 1875. The town contains two Evangelical churches, a castle, formerly a convent and now used as a town hall, and several schools. There is a harbour with quays and a dockyard, also rolling-mills and saw-mills, ironworks and sandstone quarries. Other industries are the manufacture of furniture, beer, soap, carriages and bricks. The most important shipping station on the Elbe in Saxony, Riesa is the lading-place for goods to and from Bavaria, and a mart for herrings, petroleum, wood, coal and grain. A constant passenger steamboat communication is maintained with Meissen and Dresden; and, owing to the artillery practice ranges at Zeithain, on the right bank of the Elbe, Riesa has become of recent years one of the chief depots of the Saxon army. Riesa received municipal rights in 1632, and after a period of decay was again raised to the rank of a town in 1859.