Rakovník

Rakovník lies in the uplands west of Prague, on the stream that bears its name. First recorded in 1252, it was then a market village in the district administered from Křivoklát Castle. The town grew rapidly in the later sixteenth century: walls and gates were built, a church and cemetery established, and its beer gained a reputation throughout Bohemia. The Thirty Years' War, plague and floods in the seventeenth century brought heavy losses and depopulation.