RIESA

city, Saxony Land (state), eastern Germany. It lies along the Elbe River, northwest of Dresden. It originated around a Benedictine monastery founded in 1111. A convent was built there in 1170 and was secularized in 1542. The town hall was built in the 16th century as a castle. Riesa received its municipal charter in 1623 but lost it shortly thereafter. With the development of industry and railways in the 19th century, Riesa became commercially important and was rechartered in 1859. Now the junction of the Berlin-Chemnitz and Leipzig-Dresden rail lines and the chief river port in northern Saxony, it is also a busy industrial centre with steelworks, rolling mills, a cotton mill, an oil refinery, and factories for tires, wood products, and foodstuffs. Pop. (1991 est.) 45,440.