Page 100 - UNESCO_Zatec_2021_A4

Žatec with hop fields on a vedut painting by Jan Willenberg from 1602

2. Description winemakers and hop growers. This order gradually In the period after the Battle of White Mountain (1620) and

developed, and at a time when vineyards were ceasing to
growing was negative. It is estimated that in Žatec and
exist in the Žatec region, it dealt only with hop growing. the Thirty Years’ War (1618–1648), the situation in hop
its environs, the area of hop fields decreased between
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100 Written sources state that in the mid-16 century, 1,200 to a fourth or fifth of its original size. Immediately after the
1,500 "strychů" (about 400 ha; 1 "strych" is approximately war ended, the fields laid dormant, hop poles served as
0.7 acres or three roods) of hop fields were located around firewood to both the army and the inhabitants, and there
the town of Žatec. was a lack of experienced workers.

A famous landscape engraving, from 1602, evidences the However, Saaz hops did not lose their reputation as their
view of the hop fields around the town at the beginning of quality was praised, for example, in the works of the
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the 17 century by Jan Willenberg. The importance of the patriotic Jesuit and writer, Bohuslav Balbín (1621–1688),
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Royal town of Žatec is confirmed by the fact that it was as well as the exiled writer Pavel Stránský (1583–1657).
captured by Willenberg in a series of vedutas of Czech The gradual rise in hop growing is proved in a significant
towns . Some fenced hop fields on the outskirts of Žatec document by the Austrian Monarchy, "Berní rula" (Tax
are depicted, others without fences, but all of them were Registry), which states that in around 1654, shortly after
with pole trellises. At the same time, Willenberg captured the war, there were 293 ha of hop fields in Žatec; and in
the piles of wooden poles stored in the hop fields over 1757 there were 368 ha.
the winter, which confirms the practice that is generally
associated with pole hop fields. Bohemia produces the finest hops; the Žatec region
is especially famous for that. It is exported in large
An important document from the second half of the quantities to Palatinate, Voitland, Lusatia, Bavaria,
16 century is The Guild Order of Žatec, at the time Meissen, and Hamburg for this reason, as Czech hops are
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still common to both winemakers and hop growers. very spicy and add to their longevity to beers.
Czech statutes (guild order, articles) consist of thirteen
articles on the rights and conditions, the manner in In his book "De Oeconimia suburbia," Krištof Fišer deals
which members are accepted, and of directives for with the cultivation of hops in the Žatec, Úštěk, and
a guild’s activities. Up until 1645, the designation of Klatovy regions in 1687, which proves that the cultivation
a "hop grower" was regularly used in records instead of of hops was concentrated in these areas.
a "winemaker."

3 Jan Willenberg (1571–1613) was the author of wood engravings, graphics, and drawings, which depicted a number of towns, castles, and chateaux
in Bohemia, Moravia, Silesia, Slovakia, and Austria. His work has become a valuable iconographic source for the fields of historical geography and
art history.