Lesná () is a municipality and village in

Tachov District Tachov District () is a district in the Plzeň Region of the Czech Republic. Its capital is the town of Tachov. Administrative division Tachov District is divided into two administrative districts of municipalities with extended competence: Tacho ...

in the

Plzeň Region Plzeň Region or Plzeňský Region (also known as Pilsen Region; ) is an Regions of the Czech Republic, administrative unit () of the Czech Republic, located in the western part of the historical land of Bohemia and named after the capital, Plz ...

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 500 inhabitants.

Administrative division

Lesná consists of four municipal parts (in brackets population according to the 2021 census): *Lesná (386) *Háje (9) *Písařova Vesce (52) *Stará Knížecí Huť (9)

Etymology

The original German name ''Schönwald'' means 'beautiful forest'. The modern Czech name Lesná is derived from the word ''les'', i.e. 'forest'.

Geography

Lesná is located about southwest of

Tachov Tachov (; ) is a town in the Plzeň Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 14,000 inhabitants. It lies on the Mže River. The historic town centre is well preserved and is protected as an urban monument zone. Administrative division Tachov ...

and west of

Plzeň Plzeň (), also known in English and German as Pilsen (), is a city in the Czech Republic. It is the Statutory city (Czech Republic), fourth most populous city in the Czech Republic with about 188,000 inhabitants. It is located about west of P ...

. The municipality lies on the border with Germany and is adjacent to German municipalities of

Bärnau Bärnau () is a town in the district of Tirschenreuth, Bavaria, Germany. It is situated near the border with the Czech Republic, 25 km northeast of Weiden in der Oberpfalz, and 26 km southwest of Mariánské Lázně. It obtained town p ...

, Flossenbürg and Georgenberg. Lesná lies in the

Upper Palatine Forest The Upper Palatine Forest ( or ''Böhmischer Wald''; , ) is a mountain range in Central Europe that is divided between the Czech Republic and Germany. It is a part of the larger Bohemian Massif and the German Central Uplands. Geography The ...

mountain range. The highest point is the Havran mountain at above sea level. In the eastern part of the municipal territory there is the source of the stream Kateřinský potok, the headwater of the

Pfreimd Pfreimd is a town in the district of Schwandorf, in Bavaria, Germany. It is situated on the river Naab, 19 km north of Schwandorf, and 20 km south of Weiden in der Oberpfalz. It is also close to the border with the Czech Republic. May ...

River. Most of the territory consists of extensive forests, about three-quarters of the territory is protected as the Český les Protected Landscape Area. There are also several small-scaled protected areas, including the

Pavlova Huť Nature Reserve Pavlova Huť is a nature reserve within the Český les Protected Landscape Area in the western part of the Plzeň Region of the Czech Republic. It is named after a former glass works village (founded around 1740, destroyed after 1945) of the sam ...

History

The first written mention of Lesná is from 1348, when the king sold the village with the church to Arkleb of Tisová. From 1523, it was located on a trade route from the

Kingdom of Bohemia The Kingdom of Bohemia (), sometimes referenced in English literature as the Czech Kingdom, was a History of the Czech lands in the High Middle Ages, medieval and History of the Czech lands, early modern monarchy in Central Europe. It was the pr ...

to the Bavarian

Upper Palatinate The Upper Palatinate (; , , ) is an administrative district in the east of Bavaria, Germany. It consists of seven districts and 226 municipalities, including three cities. Geography The Upper Palatinate is a landscape with low mountains and nume ...

region, which brought prosperity to the village. In the 16th century, it was referred to 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 ...

. In the second half of the 16th century, Lesná was acquired by the Schirndinger family, who (along with their descendants the Dobřenský family) owned the estate until 1945. Around 1600, Paul Schürer bought an area in the woods in what is today the southwestern part of the municipality. He founded the village of Zahájí (German: ''Waldheim'') and ran a

glass factory Glass is an amorphous ( non-crystalline) solid. Because it is often transparent and chemically inert, glass has found widespread practical, technological, and decorative use in window panes, tableware, and optics. Some common objects made o ...

there. He then received the title of a knight from the hands of Emperor

Rudolf II Rudolf II (18 July 1552 – 20 January 1612) was Holy Roman Emperor (1576–1612), King of Hungary and Croatia (as Rudolf I, 1572–1608), King of Bohemia (1575–1608/1611) and Archduke of Austria (1576–1608). He was a member of the H ...

and had built a castle. The castle was abandoned in 1780 and replaced by a new one, which was inhabited until the 20th century. From 1938 to 1945, the territory was annexed by Nazi Germany and administered as 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. ...

. After

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, the German population was expelled. Several settlements immediately at the frontier with

West Germany West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republi ...

, including Zahájí, were abandoned and became a restricted zone after the implementation of the

Iron Curtain The Iron Curtain was the political and physical boundary dividing Europe into two separate areas from the end of World War II in 1945 until the end of the Cold War in 1991. On the east side of the Iron Curtain were countries connected to the So ...

. The entire village of Zahájí, including the castle, was razed to the ground in the 1950s.

Demographics

Transport

There are no railways or major roads passing through the municipality. On the Czech-German border are two pedestrian border crossings: ''Přední Zahájí / Waldheiml'' and ''Křížový Kámen / Kreuzstein''.

Sights

The main landmark of Lesná is the Church of Saint Nicholas. It was originally a Gothic church, rebuilt in the Baroque style in 1728 and 1774. Construction of the Lešná Castle was finished in 1787. Today the Baroque castle is the seat of the municipal office. Ruin of the Zahájí Castle is located in the forests near the Czech-German border. Only several fragments have been preserved.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lesna Villages in Tachov District