OBERPFALZ - Geography and history
Upper Palatinate shares two things with Lower Bavaria - the lowest population density of Bavaria and a border with the Czech Republic.
The ore deposits of Upper Palatinate once earned it the title of the 'Ruhr-district of the Middle Ages'. Nowadays, a comprehensive network of railway lines, motorways and federal highways link it to the industrial centres of Bavaria, and there is easy access to the Czech Republic and its economic centres now that the Iron Curtain has been lifted. In the east of the region, the hills of the Upper Palatinate forest and the foothills of the Bavarian forest look towards the Czech Republic. Parts of the western Upper Palatinate lie within the terraced Franconian Stufenland. Between the two is a block-faulted region (Bruchschollenland) that is crossed by the Naab, the Upper Palatinate's principal river. Important towns include Weiden in der Oberpfalz, Amberg, Neumarkt in der Oberpfalz and Regensburg, formerly an imperial city and today the regional seat of government, boasting works of art going back 2 000 years.
Woodland represents 40% of the 9 690 km2 land area of the Regierungsbezirk, which is the highest of the Regierungsbezirke in Bavaria. Pisciculture is also a feature of the landscape.
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