Hranice (Cheb District)

Hranice (Roßbach) is a town in Cheb District in the Karlovy Vary Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 2,100 inhabitants.

Administrative parts
The villages of Pastviny, Studánka and Trojmezí are administrative parts of Hranice.

Etymology
The old German name Rossbach means 'horse brook', referring to the brook where first inhabitants watered their horses. Therefore the horse appears on the town's coat of arms and flag.

In Czech, hranice means 'border'. Following the partition of Germany, a border tripoint (between Czechoslovakia, West and East Germany) was situated near the town, for which the village of Trojmezí (literally "Tripoint") is named. The village is also the tripoint of the three historical regions of Bohemia, Bavaria and Saxony.

Geography
Hranice is located about 28 km northwest of Cheb and 49 km west of Karlovy Vary. It lies in the Aš Panhandle region, in the westernmost part of the region, on the border with Germany. It neighbors the German municipalities of Bad Elster to the southeast, Adorf to the northeast, Eichigt to the north, Regnitzlosau to the west, and Rehau to the southwest.

Hranice is situated in the Fichtel Mountains. The highest point is the hill Studánecký vrch at 697 m above sea level. The municipal territory is rich in minor watercourses. The brook Hranický potok/Tetterweinbach originates in the town and flows through Hranice. The streams Bystřina and Rokytnice form a significant part of the Czech-German border.

History
The town was probably founded at the turn of the 12th and 13th centuries. The first unverified mentions of the town come from the beginning of the 14th century. The first verified written mention of Hranice dates to 1413, when the town was bought by the House of Zedtwitz. Before that time, Hranice was the property of the Neippergs. At the end of the 14th century, the Neippergs ran into financial trouble and sold the town. The House of Zedwitz controlled Hranice and the whole region around Aš for almost 500 years.

In 1822 a new school was built. In 1850, a post office was opened and in 1868, the first fire squad was established. In 1882, Hranice was promoted to a market town.

In the 1930s, a group of Sudeten German settlers from Hranice immigrated to Chile and founded the settlement of Puyuhuapi, where they lived and intermarried with Mapuches from Chiloé Archipelago.

Transport
On the Czech-German border are two road border crossings: Hranice / Ebmath and Hranice / Bad Elster.

Hranice is the terminus of a railway line from Aš.

Sights
Notable buildings in Hranice include the Evangelic church, built in the 17th century, and the Catholic Church of the Visitation of the Virgin Mary, built in 1894.

There are several memorials: a World War I memorial built in 1928, a World War II memorial, and a memorial to a Royal Air Force pilot who crashed in the area during World War II.

Notable people

 * Rudolf Dölling (1902–1975), German politician and major general