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Belonging today to the large district town Werdau are the communities Königswalde, Langenhessen, Leubnitz and Steinpleis. Constructed as Waldhufendorf around 1180 Werdau was first mentioned in a document by the governors of Gera and Plauen in the year 1304.
The economical development of the town was formed mainly by the textile industry from the middle of the 19th-century. Early on a diverse metal industry developed and at the end of the 19th-century also vehicle construction.
Well worth seeing is the Town Hall, which was after a three years of construction inaugurated in the presence of King August III of Saxony on the 16th of April 1911. The completely restored town hall has several representation rooms with rich wooden decoration and glass paintings. From a viewing platform of the 59metres high town hall tower one has a view far beyond the city borders.
The entrance portal at the market shows a man and a woman at both sides of the town's coat of arms. They stand symbolically for the former economical pillars of the town: engineering and textile industry.
The ev.luth. town church "St.Marien" was rebuilt in late baroque style after it was destroyed several times by city fires in the years from 1760 to 1764 .
The church interior impresses through the emperor hall with mirror arches, the consistent design of altar, lectern and organ front as well as the pretty altar painting by Hartmann.
On the August-Bebel-Straße one can admire the Annoncenuhr (announcement clock), which was already erected in the year 1890. The clock was restored in the years from 1989 to 1991. The announcement clock is furnished with compass dial and clock as well as barometer is an outdoor object of the Town and Steam Engine Museum, which is ca 300m away. It is one of the few still existing 'meteorological and announcement clock pillar' in Germany.