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the railway was more crucial for the transport of In the past, the ownership structure of the land and the way
workers, traders, and fuel for the hop drying kilns. it was managed was much more complex, and therefore
While in the landscape, hops were processed in the system of operational ties that took place in the area
order to effectively preserve their properties to be was more complicated. The areas of hop fields formed an
transported to the next trade; in Žatec, all processes additional production of individual farmsteads, a large
were located in order to sell the raw material in part belonged to the local feudal seat, and the town of
Žatec which also owned some hop fields. The area was
a guaranteed quality. The stages that took place fragmented into much smaller plots, the area of individual
here are therefore not connected with cultivation, hop fields was significantly smaller, and the network
but with maintaining the quality and selling. In of service roads was denser. It was often a simple route
Žatec, hops were preserved, packed for export. between the hop field and its owner’s home. The harvested
Also their origin and quality were compulsorily hops were then most often processed (i.e., dried and
verified here. Since the introduction of mandatory packed for further transport for sale) directly in the village,
certification, every hop bale on the way in Žatec in the place of the grower’s farmstead. At the end of the
th
had to "visit" the Známkovna building (Public Hop 19 century, after the introduction of artificial drying, there
Certification Centre), firstly on today’s Tyršova was a substantial expansion of hop fields. Hop drying kilns
Street, and then later on Chmelařské Square. allowed farmers to process significantly more hops, so
both the number of hop fields and their area considerably
increased. At the same time, the service communication
Contemporary "hop paths" continue to operate on network in the landscape changed, and its transport
a similar principle as in the past. From hop fields on capacity expanded to enable more hops to be harvested
the territory of the component part 01, the hops are from hop fields. These visually specific hop drying kilns
transported to three large hop picking machines, became a new feature of the landscape. On the territory of
located near the village of Stekník. Here, hops from component part 01, it was, for example, the Josef Schöffl
the hop plant are mechanically picked and dried, hop drying kiln or the Hassmann hop drying kiln in the area
followed by moisture treatment in air conditioning of Mill No. 8 in Trnovany. The network of roads between the
chambers. hop fields and the processing site was complemented by
smaller, now mostly non-existent, farm buildings. These
were situated directly in hop fields and probably served as
Pressed hops are transported to a modern air- storage for agricultural implements and shelters for workers
conditioned warehouse in Žatec (which is part of cultivating hop fields located at a greater distance from the 79
the buffer zone), where the quality of hop cones farms of their owners or employers. Thanks to their location
is assessed, among other things, by laboratory "halfway" between the place of cultivation and processing,
analysis. they helped to serve the entire system more efficiently.

After that, the hops are gradually processed in Social changes and the gradual transition to a centralised
various ways, for example, into volumes according way of farming, culminating in collectivisation just after
th
to customer requirements, and ready for sale on the the middle of the 20 century, were also reflected in the
domestic market or for export. form of the hop growing landscape. The demise of private

Transportation of pressed hops to hop warehouses in Žatec, Stekník, 2019