The community of Jonsdorf is located in the south of the Kreis Görlitz in the southeast of the German federal state of Saxony.

In 1580 Hieronymus Richter established the first sandstone quarry inside the rock formations surrounding Jonsdorf to produce millstones.

Like many other villages and towns in Upper Lusatia, Jonsdorf established a special kind of industry in the 18th and 19th century - the weaving of linen.

The first touristic development in the village started in 1841 when Karl Linke opened the first cold water cure house (Kaltwasseranstalt) applying hydrotherapy.

After the end of World War II and the arrival of expelled Sudeten Germans from Bohemia, a small development programme was set up that included the construction of an icedome and a forest theatre in the 1950s.