Hranice (; ) is a town in

Cheb District Cheb District () is a Okres, district in the Karlovy Vary Region of the Czech Republic. Its capital is the town of Cheb. It is the westernmost district of the Czech Republic. Administrative division Cheb District is divided into three Districts of ...

in the

Karlovy Vary Region The Karlovy Vary Region () is an administrative unit () of the Czech Republic, located in the westernmost part of the country. It is named after its capital Karlovy Vary. It is known for spas, which include Karlovy Vary and Mariánské Lázně. ...

of the

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

. It has about 2,100 inhabitants.

Administrative division

Hranice consists of four municipal parts (in brackets population according to the 2021 census): *Hranice (1,643) *Pastviny (73) *Studánka (258) *Trojmezí (24)

Etymology

The old German name ''Rossbach'' means 'horse brook', referring to the brook where first inhabitants watered their horses. Therefore the horse appears on the town's coat of arms and flag. In Czech, ''hranice'' means 'border'. Following the

partition of Germany Partition may refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television * ''Partition'' (1987 film), directed by Ken McMullen * ''Partition'' (2007 film), directed by Vic Sarin * '' Partition: 1947'', or ''Viceroy's House'', a 2017 film Music * Par ...

, a border

tripoint A triple border, tripoint, trijunction, triple point, or tri-border area is a geography, geographical point at which the boundaries of three countries or Administrative division, subnational entities meet. There are 175 international tripoints ...

(between Czechoslovakia, West and East Germany) was situated near the town, for which the village of Trojmezí (literally "Tripoint") is named. The village is also the tripoint of the three historical regions of

Bohemia Bohemia ( ; ; ) is the westernmost and largest historical region of the Czech Republic. In a narrow, geographic sense, it roughly encompasses the territories of present-day Czechia that fall within the Elbe River's drainage basin, but historic ...

Bavaria Bavaria, officially the Free State of Bavaria, is a States of Germany, state in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the list of German states by area, largest German state by land area, comprising approximately 1/5 of the total l ...

and

Saxony Saxony, officially the Free State of Saxony, is a landlocked state of Germany, bordering the states of Brandenburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia, and Bavaria, as well as the countries of Poland and the Czech Republic. Its capital is Dresden, and ...

Geography

Hranice is located about northwest of

Cheb Cheb (; ) is a town in the Karlovy Vary Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 33,000 inhabitants. It lies on the Ohře River. Before the Expulsion of Germans from Czechoslovakia, expulsion of Germans in 1945, the town was the centre of the G ...

and west of

Karlovy Vary Karlovy Vary (; , formerly also spelled ''Carlsbad'' in English) is a spa town, spa city in the Karlovy Vary Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 49,000 inhabitants. It is located at the confluence of the Ohře and Teplá (river), Teplá ri ...

. It lies in the

Aš Aš (; ) is a town in Cheb District in the Karlovy Vary Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 13,000 inhabitants. Administrative division Aš consists of nine municipal parts (in brackets population according to the 2021 census): *Aš (11, ...

Panhandle region, in the westernmost part of the region, on the border with

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. It neighbors the German municipalities of

Bad Elster Bad Elster () is a spa town in the Vogtlandkreis district, in Saxony, Germany. It lies on the border of Bavaria and the Czech Republic in the Elster gebirge hills. It is situated on the river White Elster, and is protected from extremes of ...

to the southeast,

Adorf Adorf () is a small town and Municipalities in Germany, municipality in the Vogtlandkreis to the south-west of the Saxony, Free State of Saxony, Germany. Gettengrün, a village within the municipality, borders on the Czech Republic. Etymology Th ...

to the northeast, Eichigt to the north, Regnitzlosau to the west, and

Rehau Rehau () is a town in the district of Hof, in Bavaria, Germany. Rehau is situated in the Fichtel Mountains, 12 km southeast of Hof, and 12 km west of Aš. History The first documented name of Rehau was "Resawe" in the year 1234. Econ ...

to the southwest. Hranice is situated in the

Fichtel Mountains The Fichtel Mountains (, ; ) is a mountain range in Germany and the Czech Republic. They extend from the valley of the Red Main River in northeastern Bavaria to the Karlovy Vary Region in western Czech Republic. The Fichtel Mountains contain an ...

. The highest point is the hill Studánecký vrch at above sea level. The municipal territory is rich in minor watercourses. The brook Hranický potok/Tetterweinbach originates in the town and flows through Hranice. The streams Bystřina and Rokytnice form a significant part of the Czech-German border.

History

The town was probably founded at the turn of the 12th and 13th centuries. The first unverified mentions of the town come from the beginning of the 14th century. The first verified written mention of Hranice dates to 1413, when the town was bought by the House of Zedtwitz. Before that time, Hranice was the property of the Neippergs. At the end of the 14th century, the Neippergs ran into financial trouble and sold the town. The House of Zedwitz controlled Hranice and the whole region around Aš for almost 500 years. In 1822 a new school was built. In 1850, a post office was opened and in 1868, the first fire squad was established. In 1882, Hranice was promoted to a

market town A market town is a settlement most common in Europe that obtained by custom or royal charter, in the Middle Ages, a market right, which allowed it to host a regular market; this distinguished it from a village or city. In Britain, small rura ...

. In the 1930s, a group of

Sudeten German German Bohemians ( ; ), later known as Sudeten Germans ( ; ), were ethnic Germans living in the Czech lands of the Bohemian Crown, which later became an integral part of Czechoslovakia. Before 1945, over three million German Bohemians constitu ...

settlers from Hranice immigrated to

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...

and founded the settlement of Puyuhuapi, where they lived and intermarried with

Mapuche The Mapuche ( , ) also known as Araucanians are a group of Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Indigenous inhabitants of south-central Chile and southwestern Argentina, including parts of Patagonia. The collective term refers to a wide-ranging e ...

s from

Chiloé Archipelago The Chiloé Archipelago (, , ) is a group of islands lying off the coast of Chile, in the Los Lagos Region. It is separated from mainland Chile by the Chacao Channel in the north, the Sea of Chiloé in the east and the Gulf of Corcovado in the s ...

Demographics

Transport

On the Czech-German border are two road border crossings: ''Hranice / Ebmath'' and ''Hranice / Bad Elster''. Hranice is the terminus of a railway line from

Sights

Notable buildings in Hranice include the Evangelic church, built in the 17th century, and the Catholic Church of the Visitation of the Virgin Mary, built in 1894. There are several memorials: a World War I memorial built in 1928, a World War II memorial, and a memorial to a

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...

pilot who crashed in the area during World War II.

Notable people

Rudolf Dölling Rudolf Dölling (4 November 1902 – 3 August 1975) was a politician in Czechoslovakia and in East Germany. He later trained for military service and was made a Major-General in the National People's Army of East Germany. At the end of Augus ...

(1902–1975), German politician and major general

References

External links

* {{authority control Cities and towns in the Czech Republic Populated places in Cheb District