The Free State of Saxony (German: Freistaat Sachsen) is a landlocked federal state of Germany, bordering the federal states of Brandenburg, Saxony Anhalt, Thuringia, and Bavaria, as well as the countries Poland and the Czech Republic. Its capital is Dresden.
It is the tenth-largest of Germany's sixteen states in area, with an area of 18,413 square kilometres (7,109 sq mi), and, with a population of 4.3 million, the sixth most populous German state, .
Located in the middle of a former German-speaking part of Europe, the history of the state of Saxony spans more than a millennium. It has been a medieval duchy, an electorate of the Holy Roman Empire, a kingdom, and twice a republic.