Katovice is a market town in

Strakonice District Strakonice District () is a district in the South Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. Its capital is the town of Strakonice. Administrative division Strakonice District is divided into three administrative districts of municipalities with ext ...

in the

South Bohemian Region The South Bohemian Region () is an administrative unit (''Regions of the Czech Republic, kraj'') of the Czech Republic, located mostly in the southern part of its historical land of Bohemia, with a small part in southwestern Moravia. The western ...

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 1,300 inhabitants.

Geography

Katovice is located about west of

Strakonice Strakonice (; ) is a town in the South Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 22,000 inhabitants. Administrative division Strakonice consists of eight municipal parts (in brackets population according to the 2021 census): *Strakonice ...

and northwest of

České Budějovice České Budějovice (; ) is a city in the South Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 97,000 inhabitants. The city is located in the valley of the Vltava River, at its confluence with the Malše. České Budějovice is the largest ...

. It lies on the border between the

České Budějovice Basin The České Budějovice Basin () is a structural basin and Geomorphological division of the Czech Republic, geomorphological mesoregion of the Czech Republic. It is located in the South Bohemian Region and it is named after the city of České Bud� ...

and

Blatná Uplands Blatná (; ) is a town in Strakonice District in the South Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 6,700 inhabitants. It is known for a water castle in the centre of a fishpond, and a landscape garden around it. The historic town centr ...

. The highest point is the hill Katovická hora (formerly known as Kněží hora) at above sea level. The area of the hill is protected as the Kněží hora Nature Reserve. The market town is situated on the Otava River, in the historical

Prácheňsko Prácheňsko (; ) is a historical and cultural region in the Czech Republic, covering roughly the Otava River basin, mostly in the northwest part of South Bohemia. It was an administrative region in southwestern Bohemia, created in the late 13th c ...

region.

History

Katovice was founded in the 9th or 10th century, probably as a Slavic

gold panning Gold panning, or simply ''panning'', is a form of placer mining and traditional mining that extracts gold from a placer deposit using a pan. The process is one of the simplest ways to extract gold, and is popular with geology enthusiasts espec ...

settlement on the Otava River and later a market settlement. The first written mention of Katovice is from 1045, when Duke

Bretislav I Bretislav I (; 1002/1005 – 10 January 1055), known as the "Bohemian Achilles", of the Přemyslid dynasty, was Duke of Bohemia from 1034 until his death in 1055. Youth Bretislav was the son of Duke Oldřich and his low-born concubine Božena. ...

donated the settlement to the

Břevnov Monastery Břevnov Monastery (, ) is a Benedictine archabbey in the Břevnov district of Prague, Czech Republic. It was founded by Saint Adalbert, the second Bishop of Prague, in AD 993 with the support of Bohemian Duke Boleslaus II. The first Bened ...

. Since then Katovice was mainly an agricultural village. From the 13th century, Katovice was a serfdom village of the Střela castle. In 1505, Katovice was mentioned as 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 ...

for the first time. In the 19th century, Katovice slowly developed. It was still an agricultural settlement; other sources of livelihood were pearl hunting and the floating of wood in the form of

raft A raft is any flat structure for support or transportation over water. It is usually of basic design, characterized by the absence of a hull. Rafts are usually kept afloat by using any combination of buoyant materials such as wood, sealed barre ...

s. In 1867, the railway from

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

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 ...

was built and helped industrialize Katovice. From 1913 until 1922,

graphite Graphite () is a Crystallinity, crystalline allotrope (form) of the element carbon. It consists of many stacked Layered materials, layers of graphene, typically in excess of hundreds of layers. Graphite occurs naturally and is the most stable ...

was extracted from the steep hill of Kněží hora.

Demographics

Transport

Katovice is located on the railway line Strakonice–

Klatovy Klatovy (; ) is a town in the Plzeň Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 23,000 inhabitants. The historic town centre is well preserved and is protected as an Cultural monument (Czech Republic)#Monument zones, urban monument zone. Administr ...

Sport

Local football team SK Otava Katovice participates in lower amateur tiers.

Sights

The main landmark is the Church of Saints Philip and James. Originally built in the Romanesque style, it was rebuilt to its current form in 1587.

Notable people

Václav Matějka Václav Matějka (born 4 July 1937) is a Czech film director and screenwriter A screenwriter (also called scriptwriter, scribe, or scenarist) is a person who practices the craft of writing for visual mass media, known as screenwriting. Th ...

(born 1937), film director and screenwriter *

Lukáš Kolářík Lukáš Kolářík (born 5 March 1984) is a Czech politician who is a member of Czech Pirate Party. He previously served as Deputy Minister of the Interior of the Czech Republic from 2021 until 2023, member of the Chamber of Deputies of the Czech ...

(born 1984), politician

References

External links

* {{authority control Market towns in the Czech Republic Populated places in Strakonice District Prácheňsko