Katovice is a market town in

Strakonice District Strakonice District ( cs, okres Strakonice) is a district (''okres'') within South Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. Its capital is the town of Strakonice. List of municipalities Bavorov - Bělčice - Bezdědovice - Bílsko - Blatná - B ...

in the

South Bohemian Region The South Bohemian Region ( cs, Jihočeský kraj; , ) is an administrative unit (''kraj'') of the Czech Republic, located mostly in the southern part of its historical land of Bohemia, with a small part in southwestern Moravia. The western part ...

of the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...

. It has about 1,300 inhabitants.

Geography

Katovice is located about west of Strakonice and northwest of

České Budějovice České Budějovice (; german: Budweis ) is a city in the South Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 93,000 inhabitants. It is located in the valley of the Vltava River, at its confluence with the Malše. České Budějovice is t ...

. It lies on the border of the

České Budějovice Basin The České Budějovice Basin ( cs, Českobudějovická pánev) is a geomorphological mesoregion of the Czech Republic. It is located in the South Bohemian Region and it is named after the city of České Budějovice. It is known as a cultural lan ...

and Blatná Uplands. The highest point is the hill Katovická hora (formerly known as Kněží hora) at above sea level. The area of the hill is protected as the Kněží hora Nature Reserve. The market town is situated on the Otava River, in the historical

Prácheňsko Prácheňsko (german: Prachens; la, Provincia Prachinensis) is a historical and cultural region in the Czech Republic, covering roughly the Otava River basin, mostly in the northwest part of South Bohemia. It was an administrative region in southw ...

region.

History

Katovice was founded in the 9th or 10th century, probably as a Slavic

gold panning Gold panning, or simply ''panning'', is a form of placer mining and traditional mining that extracts gold from a placer deposit using a pan. The process is one of the simplest ways to extract gold, and is popular with geology enthusiasts especi ...

settlement on the Otava River and later a market settlement. The first written mention of Katovice is from 1045, when Duke

Bretislav I Bretislav I ( cs, Břetislav I.; 1002/1005 – 10 January 1055), known as the "Bohemian Achilles", of the Přemyslid dynasty, was Duke of Bohemia from 1034 until his death. Youth Bretislav was the son of Duke Oldřich and his low-born concubin ...

donated the settlement to the

Břevnov Monastery Břevnov Monastery ( cs, Břevnovský klášter, german: Stift Breunau) is a Benedictine archabbey in the Břevnov district of Prague, Czech Republic. It was founded by Saint Adalbert, the second Bishop of Prague, in 993 AD with the support of ...

. Since then Katovice was mainly an agricultural village. From the 13th century, Katovice was a serfdom village of the Střela castle. In 1505, Katovice was mentioned as a

market town A market town is a settlement most common in Europe that obtained by custom or royal charter, in the Middle Ages, a market right, which allowed it to host a regular market; this distinguished it from a village or city. In Britain, small rural ...

for the first time. In the 19th century, Katovice slowly developed. It was still an agricultural settlement; other sources of livelihood were pearl hunting and the floating of wood in the form of

raft A raft is any flat structure for support or transportation over water. It is usually of basic design, characterized by the absence of a hull. Rafts are usually kept afloat by using any combination of buoyant materials such as wood, sealed barrels ...

s. In 1867, the railroad from

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

Cheb Cheb (; german: Eger) is a town in the Karlovy Vary Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 30,000 inhabitants. It lies on the river Ohře. Before the 1945 expulsion of the German-speaking population, the town was the centre of the German-s ...

was built and helped industrialize Katovice. From 1913 until 1922,

graphite Graphite () is a crystalline form of the element carbon. It consists of stacked layers of graphene. Graphite occurs naturally and is the most stable form of carbon under standard conditions. Synthetic and natural graphite are consumed on lar ...

was extracted from the steep hill of Kněží hora. Before the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, on 20 April 1945, American fighting jets attacked a train carrying concentration camp prisoners that stopped at local railway station. More than 200 prisoners managed to run away. However, few of them were consequently tracked down by the SS men and killed instantly.

Demographics

Sport

Local football team SK Otava Katovice participates in South Bohemian Regional Championship (4th tier of the Czech football system).

Sights

The main landmark is the Church of Saints Philip and James. Originally built in the Romanesque style, it was rebuilt to its current form in 1587.

Notable people

Václav Matějka Václav Matějka (born 4 July 1937) is a Czech film director and screenwriter. He directed 15 films between 1970 and 1989 File:1989 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Cypress structure collapses as a result of the 1989 Loma Prieta ...

(born 1937), film director and screenwriter

References

External links

* {{authority control Market towns in the Czech Republic Populated places in Strakonice District Prácheňsko