Among the most prominent destinations in Saxony is Dresden. This is due to its historic setting along the Elbe River. The picturesque layout of Dresden has earned the city the name the "Florence of the Elbe". Part of an ambitious urban revitalization program in Dresden is the reconstruction of the Baroque Frauenkirche (Church of Our Lady). The ruins of Germany's onetime, largest Protestant church serve as a reminder of the horrifying bombing raids that were carried out  by allied aircraft in 1945, but also as a symbol of the movement to instill new confidence and fraternity into society after the reunification.  Among the reconstruction project's many donors is Günther Blobel, the German-American recipient of the Nobel Prize. Further downstream, not far from the famous porcelain factory in Meissen, the river passes by yet another landmark in postwar history: at Torgau, American and Soviet troops shook hands, in a symbolic act of peace.

The emigration from Saxony to America during the 19th century, is not necessarily featured in every history book, but its unfolding was no less dramatic. In 1844, 80 families from the Erzgebirge or Iron Mountains , a region predominately known for its silver mining tradition, founded the town of Wartburg in Morgan County, Tennessee. Other immigrants were soon to  follow. At least 2.000 families from Saxony eventually settled the area, making this region one of the largest Saxonian settlements in America. 

Another remarkable story may be told of the Saxonian Sorbs, a national minority and ethnic group with Slavic roots that settled the area which we today call the Lausitz, east of Dresden, around 600 AD.  A group numbering 558 individuals started out on a hazardous exodus, after having endured the first threats to their religious autonomy by Prussian reforms. In 1854 they sailed via Liverpool and Ireland to Galveston, Texas. Many lost their lives to cholera, but in the end, 500 of those who had survived founded a Sorb settlement at "Rabbs Creek" in Lee County. Today, many of the names of the "Ben Nevis'" passenger manifest still appear in Texas.