Žatec

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Statistics
Area:	42.7 km²
Population:	19,682 (2003)
Map

Main square with town hall

The Priests' Gate

Panorama of Žatec from the Ohre river

Žatec (-Czech, German: Saaz) is a very old city of the Czech Republic, in the Ústí nad Labem Region. The name of Žatec was first mentioned in the Thietmar of Merseburg Chronicle in 1004. During 11th century it was estate of Vršovci - powerful Czech nobles.

A coat-of-arms was given to the inhabitants by Vladislav II for their courage during the storming of Milano, and the place is mentioned as a royal town under Ottokar II. From the outbreak of the Hussite Wars to the Thirty Years' War Žatec was Hussite or Protestant, but after the Battle of White Mountain (1620) the greater part of the Czech inhabitants left the town, which became German and Roman Catholic.

Žatec lies on the Ohře river, which is spanned here by a suspension bridge, 210 ft. long, which is the oldest of its kind in Bohemia, having been constructed in 1826. It possesses several ancient churches, of which one is said to date from 1206, and a town hall built in 1559. Žatec is the centre of the extensive hop trade with an over-700-year-long tradition of growing and producing of this plant.