Page 126 - UNESCO_Zatec_2021_A4

Drawing of a proposal for transport machines and a sketch of the planned freight
railway for transporting hop bales to the rail, Žatec, 1898

The idea of a central warehouse with a city
railway
The town authorities, in cooperation with over
one hundred hop traders, started to consider the
construction of a central hop warehouse, which would
be used to dispatch hops after customs clearance.
They were looking for appropriate ways to connect
hop warehouses, packing plants, and vegetable
markets with the stations on the two railway tracks.
The idea of establishing an urban freight and
passenger railway line was discussed. Shipments of
up to 50,000 freight wagons per year with passenger
transport around the town were considered. The total
length of the planned route was more than 5 km.
2. Description The first project was submitted in 1898, but the

Ministry of Railways was very reluctant to discuss it.
The main reason for their hesitation was the design,
which was to use special cable constructions to
overcome the steep streets between the railway
stations by the river and the historic centre of Žatec
(on the elevated position on the terrain plateau,
126
see the description in Chapter 2.a.), along with the
warehouses. In 1902, the town brought a new project,
which was to deal with the segregation of urban
The agronomical historian Zdeněk Tempír (*1926) states
that during the years before World War I, between 60 to 140 rail lines for passenger and freight traffic. This track
thousand seasonal workers, hop pickers, were needed for would have even had a spur to the Žatec town hall
the hop harvest in the Žatec region. The atmosphere of on the main square. The project was handed over to
hop harvests before World War I is described engagingly the town in 1903, and the Town Hall and governing
by writer Egon Ervín Kisch in his report from 1910 called bodies approved the project.
"Na chmel na Žatecko", Hop picking in the Žatec region.
A number of photographs, with a harvesting theme from Its implementation was prevented after a thorough
the first half of the 20 century, have also been preserved. in site inspection of responsible officers and their
th
analysis reported in 1905, which evidenced some of
As already mentioned, in 1907, Bohemia recorded the the problems of the project. The project would have
highest acreage of hops till that point in time; 17,280
ha. The first provenance law was issued the same year, required the demolition of several corner houses in
defining the grower communities and areas and put the historic town centre, extensive landscaping would
in place the voluntary grading of hops. The Žatec area have been required and the whole implementation
was thus still divided into three groups: municipal hops, would have been very expensive. The hop and
district hops, and regional hops. The municipal hops vegetable wholesalers found that the cost, at which
group only included the town of Žatec. they would be loading rail wagons directly at their
warehouses, was unreasonable. Finally, not even
This division was amended in 1910, and the municipal the town could devote enough funds to the project,
hops group was abandoned. The Žatec Hop Growers and the implementation of a freight tram system in
Group and its two sections, namely Czech and German, the town was therefore abandoned. Due to the timely
had been gathering data and reports on the status of
hop growing in Europe. The situation at that time was analysis, none of the planned demolitions took place,
not good, especially the sale of hops which was facing and Žatec continued to use simple transport carts
problems. After a detailed evaluation of the situation and and later the first lorries.
many discussions with growers, the Hop Growers Group