Svatava () is a market town in

Sokolov District Sokolov District () is a Okres, district in the Karlovy Vary Region of the Czech Republic. Its capital is the town of Sokolov, Czech Republic, Sokolov. Administrative division Sokolov District is divided into two Districts of the Czech Republic#Mu ...

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 1,600 inhabitants.

Etymology

The settlement was named after the

Svatava Svatava may refer to places: * Svatava (river), a river in the Czech Republic and Germany * Svatava (Sokolov District), a market town in the Czech Republic *Svatava, a village and part of Černovice (Pelhřimov District) in the Czech Republic ...

River.

Geography

Svatava is located about northwest of Sokolov 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 ...

. The municipal territory lies mostly in the

Sokolov Basin The Sokolov Basin or Falkenau Basin (; , formerly also ''Falkenau-Elbogen-Karlsbader Becken'') is a structural basin and geomorphological mesoregion of the Czech Republic. It is located in the central part of the Karlovy Vary Region. It is named ...

, only the northern part extends into the

Ore Mountains The Ore Mountains (, or ; ) lie along the Czech–German border, separating the historical regions of Bohemia in the Czech Republic and Saxony in Germany. The highest peaks are the Klínovec in the Czech Republic (German: ''Keilberg'') at ab ...

and includes the highest point of Svatava, the hill Svatavský vrch at above sea level. The

River flows through the market town. Half of

Medard Medard () is an '' Ortsgemeinde'' – a municipality belonging to a ''Verbandsgemeinde'', a kind of collective municipality – in the Kusel district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the ''Verbandsgemeinde'' Lauterecken-Wolfstein. ...

Lake is situated in Svatava's territory.

History

The first written mention of Svatava is in a document of King

Wenceslaus IV Wenceslaus IV (also ''Wenceslas''; ; , 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 was deposed in 1400. As he ...

from 1391. Until 1789, it was an insignificant agricultural village. From 1789, lignite mining began to develop. In 1903, Svatava 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 ...

. 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 ...

, Svatava was occupied by Germany. In 1943, the occupiers established a

slave labour Slavery is the ownership of a person as property, especially in regards to their labour. Slavery typically involves compulsory work, with the slave's location of work and residence dictated by the party that holds them in bondage. Enslavemen ...

camp, which in September 1944 became a

subcamp Subcamps were outlying detention centres (''Haftstätten'') that came under the command of a main Nazi concentration camps, concentration camp run by the SS in Nazi Germany and German-occupied Europe. The Nazis distinguished between the List of N ...

of the

Flossenbürg concentration camp Flossenbürg was a Nazi concentration camp built in May 1938 by the SS Main Economic and Administrative Office. Unlike other concentration camps, it was located in a remote area, in the Fichtel Mountains of Bavaria, adjacent to the town of Flos ...

. 1,350 women of various nationalities were imprisoned there. In April 1945, over 1,000 women reached the subcamp following

death marches A death march is a forced march of prisoners of war, other captives, or deportees in which individuals are left to die along the way. It is distinct from simple prisoner transport via foot march. Article 19 of the Geneva Convention requires that ...

from other subcamps. The surviving prisoners were liberated by American troops on 7 May 1945. The lignite mining ceased in 2000 and the Medard mine was reclaimed to the lake.

Demographics

Transport

Svatava is located on the railway line Sokolov–

Kraslice Kraslice (; ) is a town in Sokolov District in the Karlovy Vary Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 6,400 inhabitants. It was a large and important town until World War II. It is known for the manufacture of musical instruments. Administrat ...

Sights

The main landmark is the Church of the Immaculate Conception. It was built in the

Historicist Historicism is an approach to explaining the existence of phenomena, especially social and cultural practices (including ideas and beliefs), by studying the process or history by which they came about. The term is widely used in philosophy, ant ...

style in 1924. In 1926, the rectory was added to the church. A memorial of the subcamp of the Flossenbürg concentration camp was created in 1963 by Daniela Vinopalová and erected in 1965.

Notable people

* Ernst Mosch (1925–1999), musician

References

External links

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