Chomutov (; german: Komotau) is a city in the Ústí nad Labem Region of the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...

. It has about 46,000 inhabitants. There are almost 80,000 inhabitants in the city's wider metropolitan area. The city centre is well preserved and is protected by law as an urban monument zone.

Administrative parts

Chomutov is made up of one administrative part and is the only such Czech city.

Geography

Chomutov is located about northwest of

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

. It lies on the river Chomutovka in the Ore Mountains Foothills. The surface is mostly flat with some hills in the north and southeast of the city. The highest point of the municipal territory is Hůrka , a hill on the northwestern municipal border. There are several bodies of water on the outskirts of the city. Alum Lake and Velký Otvický Pond are used for recreational purposes.

History

The first written mention of Chomutov is a deed of gift from 1252, when it came into the possession of the Teutonic Order. The

Gothic church Gothic architecture (or pointed architecture) is an architectural style that was prevalent in Europe from the late 12th to the 16th century, during the High and Late Middle Ages, surviving into the 17th and 18th centuries in some areas. It ...

of St. Catherine built during that era still stands to this day. In 1396 Chomutov received a town charter, and in 1416 the knights sold both the town and the lordship to

Wenceslaus IV Wenceslaus IV (also ''Wenceslas''; cs, Václav; german: Wenzel, nicknamed "the Idle"; 26 February 136116 August 1419), also known as Wenceslaus of Luxembourg, was King of Bohemia from 1378 until his death and King of Germany from 1376 until he ...

. On March 16, 1421, the town was stormed, sacked and burned by the

Taborites The Taborites ( cs, Táborité, cs, singular Táborita), known by their enemies as the Picards, were a faction within the Hussite movement in the medieval Lands of the Bohemian Crown. Although most of the Taborites were of rural origin, the ...

. After several upheavals and changes of ownership, Chomutov was taken by Popel of Lobkowitz in 1588, who established

Jesuit , image = Ihs-logo.svg , image_size = 175px , caption = ChristogramOfficial seal of the Jesuits , abbreviation = SJ , nickname = Jesuits , formation = , founders ...

rule, leading to trouble between the

Protestant Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...

citizens and the town's new overlord. In 1594 the feudal lordship fell to the crown, and in 1605 the town purchased its freedom and was made a royal city. After the

Thirty Years' War The Thirty Years' War was one of the longest and most destructive conflicts in European history, lasting from 1618 to 1648. Fought primarily in Central Europe, an estimated 4.5 to 8 million soldiers and civilians died as a result of batt ...

, Chomutov stagnated. Rapid development did not come until the second half of the 19th century, with advances in the mining and heavy industries. By 1938 Chomutov had over 30,000 inhabitants. Part of the

Reichsgau Sudetenland The Reichsgau Sudetenland was an administrative division of Nazi Germany from 1939 to 1945. It comprised the northern part of the '' Sudetenland'' territory, which was annexed from Czechoslovakia according to the 30 September 1938 Munich Agreement ...

, it had a population comprising about 95% ethnic Germans. A very small Jewish population, (444 in 1930 – 1.3% of the total population), came under increasing pressure, and Chomutov was declared " Judenrein" on 23 September 1938 by the increasingly pro-Nazi administration. A week later, Chomutov and its surrounding districts were occupied by

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

as a result of the 1938

Munich Agreement The Munich Agreement ( cs, Mnichovská dohoda; sk, Mníchovská dohoda; german: Münchner Abkommen) was an agreement concluded at Munich on 30 September 1938, by Germany, the United Kingdom, France, and Italy. It provided "cession to Germany ...

. This broader, north-western border area of what is the modern-day Czech Republic was annexed by Germany and reorganized as the

. After 1945, the previous population, German by a large majority, was expelled. Industrial facilities and large high-rise housing projects were then built to redevelop the area. In the late 1970s an urban settlement was built, linking Chomutov with its neighbouring Jirkov. Following the Velvet Revolution of 1989, the heavy industry significantly decreased its activity, but the environment in and around the town has been visibly improved. The leisure facilities of the area were emphasised, notably Alum Lake, the

Zoopark Chomutov Zoopark Chomutov is a Czech zoo located on the outskirts of Chomutov in Ústí nad Labem Region Ústí nad Labem Region or Ústecký Region ( cs, Ústecký kraj, , ), is an administrative unit ( cs, kraj) of the Czech Republic, located in the ...

and the Bezručovo Valley recreational area. Since 1 July 2006, Chomutov has been a statutory city.

Demographics

Transport

Roads through Chomutov: * no.: 7 (

– Slaný–Louny–Chomutov– Hora Svatého Šebestiána) * no.: 13 ( Karlovy Vary–Chomutov–Most– Teplice– Děčín–

Nový Bor Nový Bor (; until 1948 Hajda, german: Haida) is a town in Česká Lípa District in the Liberec Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 11,000 inhabitants. The town is known for its glass industry. The historic town centre is well preserved a ...

) Railways in Chomutov: * no.: 120 (Prague– Kladno– Žatec–Chomutov) * no.: 130 ( Ústí nad Labem– Bílina–Most–Chomutov) * no.: 133 (Chomutov– Jirkov) * no.: 137 (Chomutov– Vejprty–

Bärenstein Bärenstein is a municipality in the district of Erzgebirgskreis, in Saxony, Germany. History From 1952 to 1990, Bärenstein was part of the Bezirk Karl-Marx-Stadt The Bezirk Karl-Marx-Stadt, also known as Bezirk Chemnitz, was a district ('' ...

) * no.: 140 (Chomutov–Kadaň–Karlovy Vary– Sokolov–

Cheb Cheb (; german: Eger) is a town in the Karlovy Vary Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 30,000 inhabitants. It lies on the river Ohře. Before the 1945 expulsion of the German-speaking population, the town was the centre of the German- ...

)

Public transport

Transport around Chomutov is operated by buses since 1995 and also by

trolleybuses A trolleybus (also known as trolley bus, trolley coach, trackless trolley, trackless tramin the 1910s and 1920sJoyce, J.; King, J. S.; and Newman, A. G. (1986). ''British Trolleybus Systems'', pp. 9, 12. London: Ian Allan Publishing. .or trol ...

. The trolleybus net connects Chomutov with neighbouring Jirkov. They jointly operate a transport company (''Dopravní podnik měst Chomutova a Jirkova'').

Sights

Since 1992, the historical city centre has been urban monument zone. The historical centre is in the shape of an oblong, and is surrounded by arcades. The 1. máje Square with its Baroque Column of the Holy Trinity by Ambrož Laurentis from 1697 is banked by seven statues of saints built between 1725 and 1732. The city hall is situated in the northwest side and it used to be a commendam until 1607. The city hall is situated next to the Church of St. Catherine built in early

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

style and finished in 1281. On the opposite side there is the Church of Assumption of the Virgin Mary, built in late Gothic style between 1518 and 1542. The church is situated next to the tall dominant of the city, the City Tower. The tower was renovated after the fire in 1525 and rebuilt to Neogothic style in 1874. Nowadays it is used as an observation tower. At the end of the south side there is the

Baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including ...

Church of Saint Ignatius with two towers on the north frontage. The church was built for

Jesuits , image = Ihs-logo.svg , image_size = 175px , caption = ChristogramOfficial seal of the Jesuits , abbreviation = SJ , nickname = Jesuits , formation = , founders = ...

by Carlo Lurago between 1663 and 1668. The building called ''Špejchar'' from the 17th century was used by Jesuits as earlier church and it adjoins the east side of the Church of St. Ignatius. Nowadays it is used as a gallery. There is a Jesuitical dormitory south of the Church of St. Ignatius from the 16th and 17th century which is nowadays a settlement of the city museum. The most important building from the Gothic residential houses is the late Gothic house No. 9, which is at the bottom of the northeast side of the square. The

borders with the Alum Lake on its north side. The zoo is focused mostly on breeding European and mainly domestic wild animals (

wolf The wolf (''Canis lupus''; : wolves), also known as the gray wolf or grey wolf, is a large canine native to Eurasia and North America. More than thirty subspecies of ''Canis lupus'' have been recognized, and gray wolves, as popularly un ...

, european bison, etc.). The zoo is the largest in the country by area, with an area of . Bezručovo Valley is a long and deep woody valley on the river Chomutovka in the northwestern side of the city and it is a popular place for trips. Strážiště Hill rises over the northern edge of Chomutov at . On its peak there is a hotel with a former observation tower.

Notable people

* Matthäus Aurogallus (1490–1543), scholar * Franz Josef von Gerstner (1756–1832), mathematician * Ernst Fischer (1899–1972), Austrian politician, writer * Hans Goldmann (1899–1991), Austrian-Swiss ophthalmologist and inventor, rector of the University of Bern *

Erich Heller Erich Heller (27 March 1911 – 5 November 1990) was a British essayist, known particularly for his critical studies in German-language philosophy and literature of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Biography Heller was born at Chomutov ...

(1911–1990), British philosopher and literary scholar *

Marian Korn Marian Korn (1914–1987) was a Czechoslovakian printmaker. She was born February 15, 1914, in Chomutov, Austro-Hungarian Empire. In 1931, she moved to Prague, and in 1931, she graduated from the Women's College of Prague. She married in 1938, an ...

(1914–1987), printmaker * Ruth Maria Kubitschek (born 1931), German actress * Uschi Nerke (born 1944), German TV host *

Petr Klíma Petr Klíma (born December 23, 1964) is a Czech former professional ice hockey forward. He played in the National Hockey League for the Detroit Red Wings, Edmonton Oilers, Tampa Bay Lightning, Los Angeles Kings, and the Pittsburgh Penguins. He ...

(born 1964), ice hockey player *

Pavla Hamáčková-Rybová Pavla Hamáčková married Rybová () (born 20 May 1978 in Chomutov) is a Czech pole vaulter. Biography She finished 11th place overall in the final of the 2004 Summer Olympics pole vault competition. In 2001, she won the IAAF World Indoor Cham ...

(born 1978), pole vaulter * Simona Kubová (born 1991), swimmer

Twin towns – sister cities

Chomutov is twinned with: * Annaberg-Buchholz, Germany * Bernburg, Germany *

Trnava Trnava (, german: Tyrnau; hu, Nagyszombat, also known by other alternative names) is a city in western Slovakia, to the northeast of Bratislava, on the Trnávka river. It is the capital of a ''kraj'' ( Trnava Region) and of an '' okres'' ( T ...

, Slovakia

Gallery

Chomutov - Budova starého chudobince, později Policie ČR v Libušině ulici.JPG, Old poorhouse building Chomutov - Městské divadlo, 4. června 2011.JPG, City theatre Chomutov - Budova okresního soudu, 2011.JPG, District court building Chomutov - Jezuitský areál - nádvoří SKKS 01.JPG, Jesuitical dormitory Chomutov - Zástavba v ulici Na Příkopech, 2011.JPG, City block Chomutov - Pohled z Městské věže 06.JPG, View of the 1. máje Square Chomutov - Pohled z Městské věže 04.JPG, City hall and the Church of St. Catherine

References

External links

* {{authority control Cities and towns in the Czech Republic Populated places in Chomutov District Towns in the Ore Mountains