Plessa (Lower Sorbian: Plesow, pronounced [ˈplɛsɔw]) is a municipality in the Elbe-Elster district, in Brandenburg, Germany.

The name "Ples(o)" comes from an old Sorbian word for a lake, and probably refers to backwaters of the Black Elster River, now to an extent channelled, but which in the fifteenth century, with numerous small tributaries meandered through the area.

[5] The earliest record of a simple unadorned wooden chapel appears in 1540, at this stage without any cross or candle sticks for the altar.

In 1792 a stone church was built, but on 25 October 1811 the village, still mostly comprising timber buildings, was struck by a major fire which only four farmsteads survived.

[6] After the war the briquette factory and other industrial businesses were nationalised in 1950, shortly after the formal establishment of the German Democratic Republic.

[5] A serious accident took place in 1983 at the Plessa Briquette factory when a coal gas explosion caused several deaths and left many injured.