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C.1 SWOT – ANALYSIS RELATED TO THE HISTORICAL AND CULTURAL
HERITAGE OF ŽATEC AND THE LANDSCAPE OF SAAZ HOPS

C.1.A STRENGTHS

1 - The nominated property is a mutually thematically complementary pair of landscape components testifying to the traditions and
methods of growing hops in the open countryside and their processing in the environment of a town with a preserved medieval
structure.

2 - The nominated property is an excellent example of an agricultural monoculture landscape associated with the cultivation and
processing of hops. It contains all the components of such a landscape – a quantity of hop fields, villages with farmsteads and barns
for drying and storage of hops, a rural chateau, the Research Farm of hop growers with the possibility of viewing the hop agricultural
machinery.

3 - The nominated property is an important example of the traditional use of agricultural landscape focused on specific, singular,
crop production, which requires specific climatic, growing and processing conditions in which this process takes place every year.

4 - The cultivation of hops in the nominated area is based on the knowledge and experience of growers passed down from
generation to generation. This empiricism has been developed into precision hop breeding and subsequently into a separate,
on-site scientific field, whose experts take care of this heritage daily, and provide a basis for professional activities.

5 - The authenticity of the buildings in the rural landscape component is high. It provides credible information, both on the farmsteads,
a rural chateau and a large Baroque granary, transformed in recent history into a hop warehouse. 97

6 - The continuous trading and cultivation of Saaz hops gradually changed the town of Žatec into a world-renowned hop centre,
which is evidenced by the number of typologically interesting buildings found nowhere else.

7 - The town of Žatec is a unique example of a European town with a medieval foundation, which combines the image of the
historical core of burgher houses and a large hop growing centre, with hop growing buildings, and structures with presentational
and educational content, allowing us to understand all the contexts of hop growing in one place.

8 - The nominated property provides opportunities to get acquainted with the still-living, continuous cultural tradition of hop
growing, processing and certification of their exceptional quality.

9 - The nominated property is historically, and currently, world-famous for hop research. Through these research activities
international exchange of technical and technological experience related to the cultivation and processing of hops takes place.

10 - The property is testimony to the rich and interconnected history of the local Czech, German and Jewish community: a traditionally
multicultural society, with clear links to the development of hop cultivation and processing. It continues to develop these features
through presentation activities.

11 - The authenticity of both components is stabilised through heritage protection and the conditions anchored in the valid spatial
planning documentation of the municipalities (including the stability of the position of hop fields, watercourses, settlements and
their extent, including the ground structure and road network).

12 - Entities in the nominated property have repeatedly demonstrated their ability to use European, national and regional subsidy
titles, and the continuity of financial support is strengthened by the existence of the local Žatec Town Fund for the regeneration
of cultural heritage assets. (This fact is evidenced by a large number of restored cultural heritage assets in recent years and the
award of the town by the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic for exemplary implementation of the Regeneration Programme).