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already increasing. It can therefore be stated that the In aerial photographs from 1953, there can already
increase in the area of individual hop fields is mainly due be seen more continuous areas of hop fields due
to the development of technology and would take place to the transition to wire trellises and due to the
in the landscape without such extensive socio-economic collectivisation of agriculture. In the photographs the
changes such as the more recent history of the Czech cultivation of hops already takes place only on these
lands, including the nominated property. structures, and in connection with the abandonment
of the cultivation of hops on poles, farming on slope
The period of the Second World War brought fundamental positions has gradually disappeared. Another reason
political and economic changes to the landscape. The for abandoning the cultivation of hops on the slopes
German population was expelled from Žatec during the was, in particular, the fact that farming on the slopes
spring of 1945. From February 1947, the area was settled was difficult for the newly used mechanisation, and
by Volhynian Czechs (Ethnic Czechs and their descendants smaller areas were economically less important
who settled in the Ukrainian region of the then Tsarist for larger scale collective agriculture. Such places
Russia, Volhynia, in the 19 century, who were offered represent, for example, the area at the edge of the
th
re-emigration after World War II). The Jewish population, river terrace of the southern part of component part
which provided the hop trade, also had left Žatec due to 01. Together with the structure of the hop fields of
German persectution before the start of World War II. The larger sizes, the overall pattern of land use has been
Volhynian Czechs probably had experience with growing simplified.
hops because Ukraine is one of the few areas where hops
are still grown (see comparative analysis in Chapter 3.2). The extent of the area used as hop fields has not
Still, they had to adapt it to the local conditions of the changed much since 1953. However, the internal
country in which they moved. Besides, after the advent of structure of hop wire trellises was changed by the
the communist regime, agriculture was collectivised (the transition from narrow to wider spaces between the
process of transforming individual private agriculture hop plants due to a change in the mechanisation and
into collective agriculture with the creation of the so- harvesting technology used. Hop fields currently are
called United Agricultural Cooperatives / collective farms also appearing in locations that were not previously
called JZD). The Large original estate in Stekník was used. These are the originally waterlogged areas
confiscated after the war, and the related farm came that have been drained, or locations that were less
under the control of the Czechoslovak State Estates fertile, where hops are now grown under challenging
from 1949. Later it served as the Agricultural Research conditions. Such places in component part 01 149
Institute, which concentrated mostly on hop production represent, for example, the positions of hop fields
(today’s Research Farm of the Research Hop Institute Co., northwest of Stekník.
Ltd. in Stekník).

Aerial view of hop fields during the hop harvest, Stekník, 2019