Žatec

Žatec (Saaz) is a town in Louny District in the Ústí nad Labem Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 19,000 inhabitants. It lies on the Ohře river. Žatec is famous for an over-700-year-long tradition of growing Saaz noble hops used by several breweries. Žatec and the Landscape of Saaz Hops was included in the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2023. The historic town centre is well preserved and is protected by law as an urban monument reservation and partly also as an urban monument zone.

Administrative parts
The villages of Bezděkov, Milčeves, Radíčeves, Trnovany, Velichov and Záhoří are administrative parts of Žatec.

Etymology
The name Žatec is derived from the Old Czech word záteč / zateč. It was a designation for a place on a river where ice accumulates in a narrowed channel.

Geography
Žatec is located about 18 km west of Louny and 62 km northwest of Prague. It lies in an agricultural landscape of the Most Basin. The highest point is at 337 m above sea level. The Ohře River flows through the town. The confluence of the Ohře and Blšanka rivers is situated on the eastern municipal border.

History
The first written mention of Žatec is in the Latin chronicle of Thietmar of Merseburg of 1004. In 1248, Žatec was firstly titled as a town. In 1265, it received the privileges of a royal town from King Ottokar II of Bohemia.

In the 16th century, Žatec had around 5,000 inhabitants and was one of the most populous towns in the kingdom. In 1827, a chain bridge over the Ohře, the first chain bridge in Bohemia, was built.

From the outbreak of the Hussite Wars in 1419 to the Thirty Years' War, the town was Hussite or Protestant, but after the Battle of White Mountain (1620) the greater part of the Czech inhabitants left the town. It remained Germanic and Roman Catholic until 1946, when the inhabitants of Germanic heritage were expelled to both East and West Germany. On 3 June 1945, 5,000 male inhabitants of Germanic heritage from Žatec were marched to the town square of Postoloprty and where at least 763 were murdered. Estimates range up to 2,000 victims killed by Czechoslovak military on the march, in Postoloprty, and in Žatec on and after the march.

Economy
Žatec and its surroundings is known for its tradition of growing Saaz hops. Saaz hops or Žatec hops is a protected designation of origin.

The tradition of beer brewing started here in 1261; growing of hops is first documented in 1348. In 1800–1801, the Žatec Brewery started its production, which continues to this day.

Transport
Žatec is located on the railway line Plzeň–Most. The town is served by two train stations: Žatec and Žatec západ.

Culture
Žatec hosts Dočesná, a hops-related harvest festival. It takes place on the town square every September.

Education
Žatec is home to three secondary schools: Žatec Gymnasium, Business Academy and Secondary Vocational School of Agriculture and Ecology, and Secondary Vocational School SČMSD (focused on the hotel industry and gastronomy). There are six primary schools and also one primary art school.

Sport
Žatec is represented by the football club FK Slavoj Žatec, playing in lower amateur tiers. It was founded in 1936.

The main sports facility is the Mládí Stadium. It was founded in 1965.

The Flora Stadium is a sports facility in the south of the town. It was founded between 1924 and 1938. Until 1960, it had a motorcycle speedway track at the site.

Sights
Since 1961, the historic core of Žatec has been protected as an urban monument reservation. It is a collection of important buildings and architectural styles from the Romanesque period to the Art Nouveau.

Since 2003, the area south of the historic centre has been protected as an urban monument zone. It is valuable mainly for its technical constructions related to hop growing.

The Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary is one of the most significant monuments. It was originally built in the Romanesque style and some of its Romanesque parts are still preserved. In 1724–1728, the Chapel of Saint John of Nepomuk was added. Around 1740, the west façade was reconstructed in the Baroque style.

The hop-growing and brewing tradition is widely presented by the town. There are Hop Museum and Brewing Museum. The Temple of Hops and Beer is a tourist complex with several attractions, including a lookout tower and a small astronomical clock. Žatec and the Landscape of Saaz Hops (which includes the village of Trnovany within Žatec and the village of Stekník) was included in the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2023.

In popular culture
Žatec was used as a filming location for many historical films and TV series, including Yentl (1983), The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles (1992), Les Misérables (1998), The Scarlet Pimpernel (1999), Oliver Twist (1999), Burning Bush (2013), The Zookeeper's Wife (2016), A Bag of Marbles (2017) and Oscar-winning Jojo Rabbit (2019).

Notable people

 * Johannes von Tepl (c. 1350 – c. 1415), writer
 * Eugen Gura (1842–1906), German operatic baritone
 * Gabriel Anton (1858–1933), Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist
 * Adolf Strauss (1902–1944), pianist and composer
 * Maria Treben (1907–1991), Austrian author and herbalist
 * Karel Reiner (1910–1979), composer and pianist
 * Peter Glaser (1923–2014), Czech-American scientist and aerospace engineer
 * Zdeněk Svěrák (born 1936), actor, humorist and scriptwriter
 * Miroslav Varga (born 1960), sports shooter, Olympic winner
 * Jan Svěrák (born 1965), film director
 * Jaromír Zmrhal (born 1993), footballer

Twin towns – sister cities
Žatec is twinned with:
 * 🇵🇱 Krasnystaw, Poland
 * 🇧🇪 Poperinge, Belgium
 * 🇩🇪 Thum, Germany
 * 🇸🇮 Žalec, Slovenia