à ½atec (; ) is a town in Louny District in the ÃÂstànad Labem Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 19,000 inhabitants. It lies on the Ohà Âe River. à ½atec is famous for an over-700-year-long tradition of growing Saaz noble hops used by several breweries. à ½atec 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.
à ½atec consists of seven municipal parts (in brackets population according to the 2021 census):
The name à ½atec is derived from the Old Czech word záteà/ zateÃÂ. It was a designation for a place on a river where ice accumulates in a narrowed channel.
à ½atec is located about west of Louny and northwest of Prague. It lies in an agricultural landscape in the Most Basin. The highest point is at above sea level. The Ohà Âe River flows through the town. The Liboc River joins the Ohà Âe on the western outskirts of the town. The Blà ¡anka River flows through the Trnovany part of à ½atec and then joins the Ohà Âe just outside the territory of à ½atec.
à ½atec's climate is classified as oceanic climate (Köppen: Cfb; Trewartha: Dobk). Among them, the annual average temperature is , the hottest month in July is , and the coldest month is in January. The annual precipitation is , of which July is the wettest with , while February is the driest with only . The extreme temperature throughout the year ranged from on 11 February 1929 to on 20 August 2012.
The first written mention of à ½atec is in the Latin chronicle of Thietmar of Merseburg of 1004. In 1248, à ½atec was firstly titled as a town. In 1265, it received the privileges of a royal town from King Ottokar II.
In the 16th century, à ½atec had around 5,000 inhabitants and was one of the most populous towns in the kingdom. In 1827, a chain bridge over the Ohà Âe, 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 an ethnically German town until 1945, when the Germans were expelled. On 3 June 1945, 5,000 male Sudeten German inhabitants from à ½atec were marched to the town square of Postoloprty, and at least 763 were murdered. Estimates range up to 2,000 victims killed by Czechoslovak military on the march, in Postoloprty, and in à ½atec on and after the march.
à ½atec and its surroundings is known for its tradition of growing Saaz hops. Saaz hops or à ½atec 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 1800âÂÂ1801, the à ½atec Brewery started its production, which continues to this day.
à ½atec is located on the railway line Plzeà ÂâÂÂMost. The town is served by two train stations: à ½atec and à ½atec západ.
à ½atec hosts DoÃÂesná, a hops-related harvest festival. It takes place on the town square every September.
à ½atec is home to three secondary schools: à ½atec Gymnasium, Business Academy and Secondary Vocational School of Agriculture and Ecology, and Secondary Vocational School SÃÂMSD (focused on the hotel industry and gastronomy). There are six primary schools and a primary art school.
à ½atec is represented by the football club FK Slavoj à ½atec, playing in lower amateur tiers. It was founded in 1936.
The main sports facility is the MládàStadium. 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.
Since 1961, the historic core of à ½atec 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 1724âÂÂ1728, 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. à ½atec and the Landscape of Saaz Hops (which includes the village of Trnovany within à ½atec and the village of SteknÃÂk) was included in the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2023.
Retro Computer in à ½atec is a permanent exhibition of home computers from the 1970s to the 1990s. It is a private collection of over 135 pieces of functional technology.
à ½atec 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).
à ½atec is twinned with: