Lovosice (; ) is a town in

Litoměřice District Litoměřice District () is a Okres, district in the Ústí nad Labem Region of the Czech Republic. Its capital is the town of Litoměřice. Administrative division Litoměřice District is divided into three Districts of the Czech Republic#Munici ...

in the

Ústí nad Labem Region Ústí nad Labem Region or Ústecký Region () is an Regions of the Czech Republic, administrative unit () of the Czech Republic, located in the north-western part of the historical land of Bohemia, and named after the capital, Ústí nad Labem. I ...

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 8,700 inhabitants. It is an industrial town.

Geography

Lovosice is located about southwest of

Litoměřice Litoměřice (; ) is a town in the Ústí nad Labem Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 23,000 inhabitants. The historic town centre is well preserved and is protected as an urban monument reservation. The town is the seat of the Roman C ...

and south of

Ústí nad Labem Ústí nad Labem (; ) is a city in the Czech Republic. It has about 91,000 inhabitants and is the capital of the Ústí nad Labem Region. It is a major industrial centre and, besides being an active river port, is an important railway junction. ...

. It lies mostly in the

Lower Ohře Table The Lower Ohře Table () is a plateau and a geomorphological mesoregion of the Czech Republic. It is located in the Ústí nad Labem and Central Bohemian regions. Geomorphology The Lower Ohře Table is a mesoregion of the Central Bohemian Tab ...

. A small northwestern part of the municipal territory extends into the Central Bohemian Uplands and includes the highest point of Lovosice, which is a

contour line A contour line (also isoline, isopleth, isoquant or isarithm) of a Function of several real variables, function of two variables is a curve along which the function has a constant value, so that the curve joins points of equal value. It is a ...

at the foot of the Lovoš mountain at above sea level. The town is situated on the left bank of the

Elbe The Elbe ( ; ; or ''Elv''; Upper Sorbian, Upper and , ) is one of the major rivers of Central Europe. It rises in the Giant Mountains of the northern Czech Republic before traversing much of Bohemia (western half of the Czech Republic), then Ge ...

River, which forms the northern municipal border.

History

The region of Lovosice was inhabited already in the

Bronze Age The Bronze Age () was a historical period characterised principally by the use of bronze tools and the development of complex urban societies, as well as the adoption of writing in some areas. The Bronze Age is the middle principal period of ...

. Some evidence indicates that the first Czechs lived right here. The first mention of Lovosice is from 1143. Duke Vladislaus II gave this small village to the

Strahov monastery Strahov Monastery () is a Premonstratensian abbey founded in 1143 by Jindřich Zdík, Bishop John of Prague, and Vladislaus II, Duke of Bohemia. It is located in Strahov, Prague, Czech Republic. History The founding of a monastery After his p ...

. 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 ...

promoted the village to a town in 1600. Lovosice was 1756 the site of a major battle between

Prussia Prussia (; ; Old Prussian: ''Prūsija'') was a Germans, German state centred on the North European Plain that originated from the 1525 secularization of the Prussia (region), Prussian part of the State of the Teutonic Order. For centuries, ...

and the

Austrian empire The Austrian Empire, officially known as the Empire of Austria, was a Multinational state, multinational European Great Powers, great power from 1804 to 1867, created by proclamation out of the Habsburg monarchy, realms of the Habsburgs. Duri ...

, at the

Battle of Lobositz The Battle of Lobositz or Lovosice also Lowositz on 1 October 1756 was the opening land battle of the Third Silesian War and the wider Seven Years' War. Frederick the Great's 28,000 Prussians were prevented by 33,000 Austrians under Maximilian ...

. In 1850, the railroad was built, which supported the industrialization of the town and accelerated development. During

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 ...

, due to the

Munich Agreement The Munich Agreement was reached in Munich on 30 September 1938, by Nazi Germany, the United Kingdom, the French Third Republic, French Republic, and the Kingdom of Italy. The agreement provided for the Occupation of Czechoslovakia (1938–194 ...

, Lovosice fell within a German occupation zone, commonly called

Sudetenland The Sudetenland ( , ; Czech and ) is a German name for the northern, southern, and western areas of former Czechoslovakia which were inhabited primarily by Sudeten Germans. These German speakers had predominated in the border districts of Bohe ...

. Only 600 Czechs stayed in the town at that time. After the war, the German population was expelled as a result of the

Beneš decrees The Beneš decrees were a series of laws drafted by the Czechoslovak government-in-exile in the absence of the Czechoslovak parliament during the German occupation of Czechoslovakia in World War II. They were issued by President Edvard Beneš fr ...

Demographics

Economy

Lovosice is known as an industrial town with a long tradition of

chemical A chemical substance is a unique form of matter with constant chemical composition and characteristic properties. Chemical substances may take the form of a single element or chemical compounds. If two or more chemical substances can be combin ...

and

food-processing Food processing is the transformation of agricultural products into food, or of one form of food into other forms. Food processing takes many forms, from grinding grain into raw flour, home cooking, and complex industrial methods used in the maki ...

industries.

Transport

Lovosice is a significant transport junction. Besides a cargo port on the Elbe River, the town has a great connection to

Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...

and Germany via the D8 motorway. Lovosice is located on the railway lines

–

Děčín Děčín (; ) is a city in the Ústí nad Labem Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 46,000 inhabitants. It is the seventth largest municipality in the country by area. Děčín is an important traffic junction. Administrative division Děč ...

and

– Chotiměř. The town is served by three train stations.

Sights

The former town hall is one of the most valuable buildings in the town. It was built in the Art Nouveau style in 1906–1907. Today it serves as a library and tourist information office. The Renaissance castle in Lovosice was built in the second half of the 16th century. After a fire in 1809, it was modified in the Baroque style and served as an archive and office. Today the building houses a secondary

vocational school A vocational school (alternatively known as a trade school, or technical school), is a type of educational institution, which, depending on the country, may refer to either secondary education#List of tech ed skills, secondary or post-secondar ...

. The Church of Saint Wenceslaus was built in the Baroque style in 1733–1748, on the site of the former wooden church. It contains valuable frescoes and a Saint Wenceslaus altarpiece.

Notable people

* Karl von Czyhlarz (1833–1914), Bohemian-Austrian jurist and politician * Alfons Dopsch (1868–1953), Austrian historian

Twin towns – sister cities

Lovosice is twinned with: * Coswig, Germany

References

External links

* {{authority control Cities and towns in the Czech Republic Populated places in Litoměřice District Populated riverside places in the Czech Republic Populated places on the Elbe