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century so that drying did not interrupt the technological the depiction of hop cones in the gables of the gates
process and the kilns were naturally connected to other (No. 22, No. 15) or the statue of St. Lawrence, the patron
service areas, especially to the hop drying lofts needed for saint of hop growers, located on the gable of the gate of
quality hop processing. For fire reasons, it was preferred the farmstead No. 10.
to place them at the rear of the plots, as far away as
possible from the residential building. These hop drying The development of the village is complemented by
kilns are also, in addition to their proportions, identifiable an architecturally and artistically valuable chateau
due to their many specific architectural elements, such as complex with extensive terraced gardens, delimited
evaporators located above the oast chimneys, chimneys from the surrounding buildings by walls with three richly
attached to the gables, or due to the existence of specific decorated gates. From the highest level of the gardens,
small ventilation openings in the perimeter walls. A less a magnificent view of the surrounding hop fields opens
common design is represented with the existence of kilns up in the floodplain below the promontory. The chateau
built into a farm building, most often in a barn. These are complex consists of the dominant main building with
distinguishable from an external view only due to small a ground plan of the letter "L". The current form of the
details, such as the protruding of the kiln body out of the building was acquired in the 1760s during an extensive
perimeter or existence of a chimney. Rococo remodelling, the author of which was the builder
of Žatec, Johan Paul Losch.
Completely intact, including its original technological
equipment, is the hop drying kiln in the farmstead No. 23. The chateau complex also includes some buildings
The single-chamber body of the kiln was added to the older standing outside its enclosed area, illustrating the
farm building. Other hop drying kilns are preserved in the functional complexity of the chateau management.
grounds of the farmstead No. 43 (here with an infrequent These are single-story houses, Nos. 26 and 27 in front of
system of symmetrically placed roof evaporators) or the northern gate, used to house the chateau servants,
No. 9 (with a visually and materially dominant half- and a Baroque granary terminating the north-eastern
timbered superstructure of the evaporators). Thanks to view axis. The sizeable free-standing granary was built
its location outside the urban area, the hop drying kilns during the time of the Kulhánek of the Klaudenstein
on plot No. 43 adapted from a former granary building, to dynasty in the 1780s. The original wooden structure
which a tract with drying technology was added, can be of built-in floors, which has been preserved up until
well recognized in the village panorama. Two fans protrude today is of high-quality carpentry. Its facades also had
above the surface of its roof at the level of the oast, a magnificent appearance, as evidenced by the remains 85
a central two-vent chimney was added to the gable wall, of the architectural decoration on the gable walls in
and a handling ridge dormer was installed in the south- the interior. The granary was adapted into a hop drying
th
th
western roof plane, enabling the hops to be stored. The structure at the turn of the 19 and 20 centuries when
hop growing tradition of the village is also demonstrated a rectangular hop drying kiln was added to the eastern
by elements of architectural decoration, especially by facade, and then later the lower body of a boiler room.

The Statue of St. Lawrence, the patron of hop growers, on the gable of the gate of farmstead No.10, Stekník, 2005