It lies in the transition zone between the Elbe Sandstone Mountains in the north and the Central Bohemian Uplands in the south.

The highest point is a contour line on the slopes of Děčínský Sněžník at 702 m (2,303 ft) above sea level.

Most of the built-up area is situated in the river valley with an elevation of 135 m (443 ft), which makes it the lowest city in the country.

In the second half of the 13th century, King Ottokar II founded a new royal city under the castle.

[4] The Knights of Bünau introduced Protestantism to the region, however the Protestant belief was suppressed by the Habsburg kings in the course of the Counter-Reformation, and the Bünaus were driven out upon the 1620 Battle of White Mountain.

[4] In the 1768, a spring of mineral water was discovered in the nearby village of Horní Žleb (today part of Děčín).

Due to the development of industry and traffic, which brought noise to the area, the spa began to decline, and in 1906 the Thuns sold it.

Upon the 1938 Munich Agreement, both towns were annexed by Nazi Germany and incorporated into the Reichsgau Sudetenland.

Under German occupation, a Gestapo prison[8] and a forced labour camp were located in the city.

[9] After the war, the ethnic German population was expelled under terms of the 1945 Potsdam Agreement and the Beneš decrees.

The city benefits from its location in protected landscape areas and the proximity of the Bohemian Switzerland National Park.

[4] Děčín is a significant junction of land, rail and water transport, situated near an important Czech-German border crossing.

The city is located at the intersection of roads I/13 (from Teplice to Liberec) and I/62 (from Ústí nad Labem to the Czech-German border), which are parts of the European route E442).

Děčín main railway station is located on one of the most important Czech railway lines, which leads from Prague to Děčín via Ústí nad Labem, and continues to Dresden, Berlin, Hamburg and Kiel.

[16] In 1932, financial problems forced the Thun und Hohenstein family to sell the castle to the Czechoslovak state.

It served as army barracks, then it was appropriated by occupying Germans as a military garrison during World War II.

In 2005, the government completed a restoration of a large part of the castle and opened it as a museum and venue for private gatherings and public events.

It was built in the early Baroque style in 1687–1691 by the Thun und Hohenstein family as a castle church.

[21] The synagogue in Děčín-Podmokly was built in 1906–1907 in a faux Oriental style with Art Nouveau elements.

The bridge is decorated by a Baroque sculpture group of Saints Vitus, Wenceslaus and John of Nepomuk, created by Michael Brokoff in 1714.

[23] In the river Elbe near the left bank stands a basalt hunger stone, which is visible only when water levels are low.