Žatec

Žatec stands on the Ohře in northwestern Bohemia, amid a country long famed for its hops. First mentioned in 1004, it received royal town privileges from Ottokar II in 1265. By the sixteenth century it was among the most populous towns in the kingdom. Žatec embraced the Hussite cause and later Protestantism; after the defeat of the Bohemian revolt at White Mountain in 1620, much of its Czech population left. In 1827 a chain bridge was built across the Ohře, the first of its kind in Bohemia.