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Tokaj wine, Saaz hops is associated with the town of associate the quality and success of cultivation methods
Žatec (Saaz in German). directly with religion. Hop growing was - in contrast to
the above - only a supplementary livelihood for the rural
Where a single specific town has not been profiled population. From the beginning of production, this deficit
in an agricultural landscape enough for its name to of a direct "connection of the rural population to the
be identified with a particular crop, a commercially actual consumption of hops" put to the fore a completely
successful commodity bears the name of a wider pragmatic approach, which influenced the typology of
area, sometimes indeed the entire country where it buildings of the hop landscape. In the countryside, the
is produced. This is the case with Colombian coffee, intention was to grow hops, harvest the crop well, dry it
Brazilian coffee, Chinese, Indian or Ceylon tea, quickly and sell it in the days which followed, not to store
Cuban rum. Also, widely grown rice is not so much it for a long time. The consequence of this is a very strong
identified with its own production area and its specific link between the countryside and the town where all the
administrative centre, but with a more general type "post-production" had moved to. Thus, rural growers
and its specific characteristics (jasmine, red, black, brought sacks to Žatec for certification, or for further
basmati, ...). processing, final drying, and in the town the processes of
packaging, sulphurisation and sale followed.
Specifics of the socio-economic aspects of hop
cultivation and processing Many owners of smaller village farms did not grow hops
The agricultural cultural landscapes of developed countries at all in their fields, and in the hinterland of the villages in
(especially in Europe) are generally different, for example, the hop landscape (in the buffer zone) there are also the
from the cultural landscapes of the tropical and subtropical usual fields for cereals and other crops. In the years of the
belt, where agriculture binds together a higher percentage biggest production boom, however, even these village
of the population and rural society also maintains its inhabitants, who did not grow hops themselves, equipped
community specifics more. There is a difference in the OUV their farmsteads with single-purpose drying capacities,
of cultural landscapes in which cultivation and processing leased to the owners of production fields for a time-limited
themselves are associated with pragmatic approaches, period, when it was necessary to harvest and dry local hop
guided by the awareness of the opportunity to successfully output as fast as possible. Similarly, hops continued to
trade in the product, to which are also related attributes be dried in the lofts of houses inside the historic centre of
dependent on the final processing, certification and Žatec, even at a time when the plots of the towns people
sales and transfer of these final stages of the story from directly in the town did not contain hop gardens; hops 209
rural to urban, particular in the case of supra-regional or were dried if necessary even in the roof spaces of religious
international trade. This applies both in Europe (i.e. in the buildings, as the roofscape of the town still reflects.
case of the nominated property and Champagne) and in the
processing of tropical crops with subsequent production Thus, farms for the processing of hops for the final
requiring more complex organization and specialization product (especially beer) have not developed in the rural
of production (Tequila, sugar). A different case is that of landscape of the nominated property, as is the case in the
previously productive agricultural landscapes, which turned vineyard landscapes of local producers or in the case of
into derelict or fossil landscapes at the very moment when the "agave landscape" of local distilleries associated with
the original population changed significantly or disappeared haciendas. On the other hand, the town of Žatec has been
completely or the social aspects of cultivation changed as a national hop growing centre since the Middle Ages,
a result of social changes (see Archaeological landscape where hops were not only grown and processed, but also
of the first coffee plantations in the south-east of Cuba where they were later also certified and subsequently
and numerous others, landscapes abandoned for various traded all over the world. In Žatec, of course, beer was
reasons, that are not on the WHL, but traces of cultivation always brewed from local hops, and to this day there is
are evident in them). a functioning brewery (see Chapters 2. and 2.b.)

It is typical for monoculture crops that far from all of their Thus, the processing and subsequent handling of hops
output was consumed by their growers, however, at least differs significantly from other agricultural crops, which
part of it could be made use of by the growers themselves could also have been traded by the rural population or
and was basically sold as a surplus (however large its share their elites. The certification of the quality of hops, which
of the total harvest). In many regions, the direct consumer increased the opportunity to market it well and was
relationship to the cultivated crop has developed into therefore also in the interest of rural growers, made the
a strong cultural tradition or rituals with ethnological town of Žatec a fundamental part of the whole process,
aspects. Traditions associated with sowing, harvesting, without which the ordinary grower would not be able to
and consumption are also referred to for those properties succeed on the market.
registered with the WHL. Numerous agricultural cultural
landscapes that are registered with the WHL are valued for The need for specialization, the advantage of
the fact that high-quality proven cultivation techniques mechanization for various stages of care for the fields
are maintained by local communities, which often and growing plants soon led hop growers to form an