Dresdner Striezelmarkt
One of the first genuine Christmas Markets in the world, founded as a one-day market in 1434. The word Striezelmarkt comes from Strüzel, which was the name of a type of cake sold at the market; it is now widely known as Stollen. The most famous features of the market are the world’s largest usable Christmas arch with a breadth of 13.5 metres and a height of more than 5 metres and the 14-metre high Erzgebirge Christmas pyramid. At the centre of the Striezelmarkt stands a 20 metres high spruce, brought from the nearby Tharandt (a municipality in Saxony) woods and decorated with lights.