Cultural landscape
Hop landscape is a unique spatial structure, the material characteristics of the landscape are defined by its relief, the river, the panorama of the villages and the town of Žatec and the character of the buildings that are associated with hop processing.
Hop fields were established in places with historicaly suitable conditions. The composition of the soil, the level of the groundwater, the exposure of the area to sunlight, the proximity of the watercourse, and the natural barrier preventing the flow of northwestern winds are particularly important.
The relationship between human and landscape documents the existence of village farms, their proximity to hop fields, connections to local roads and locations within farmsteads, their size, construction, building materials used, and the appearance of their roofs, all this is based on the need for quality and, above all, fast processing of this crop as long exposure to air may degrade it.
In connection with the cultivation and processing of hops, a specific road network structure has developed in the area of the nominated property.
View from the village of Zálužice over the river Ohře to the hop fields of the Hop Research Institute Co., Ltd., Žatec in the cadastre of the village Stekník. In the foreground, a detail of the construction of the Saaz hop wire trellis.
An aerial view of the commonly named Imperial Road and hop fields of the Hop Research Institute Co., Ltd., Žatec. View from the village of Stekník to the village of Trnovany and the town of Žatec.
Hop fields use wire trellises, the construction principle of which consists of a wire ceiling formed by transverse (supporting) wires connecting transverse rows of supporting poles (wooden, concrete), and in-line thin wires used annually to hang training wires to support the growth of the hop plants.
An aerial view of the Stekník Chateau surrounded by hop fields of the Hop Research Institute Co., Ltd., Žatec. In the background, the village of Hradiště and České Středohoří (Bohemian Midlands).