Zwickau (; Upper Saxon also: "Zwigge"; Czech: "Cvikov") is, with around 89,000 inhabitants, the fourth-largest city of the Free State of Saxony after Leipzig, Dresden and Chemnitz and it is the seat of the Zwickau District. The West Saxon city is situated in the valley of the Zwickau Mulde (German: "Zwickauer Mulde"; progression: ), and lies in a string of cities sitting in the densely populated foreland of the Elster and Ore Mountains stretching from Plauen in the southwest via Zwickau, Chemnitz and Freiberg to Dresden in the northeast. From 1834 until 1952, Zwickau was the seat of the government of the south-western region of Saxony.