Horní Blatná () is a town in

Karlovy Vary District Karlovy Vary District () is a Okres, district in the Karlovy Vary Region of the Czech Republic. Its capital is the city of Karlovy Vary. Administrative division Karlovy Vary District is divided into two Districts of the Czech Republic#Municipalit ...

in the

Karlovy Vary Region The Karlovy Vary Region () is an administrative unit () of the Czech Republic, located in the westernmost part of the country. It is named after its capital Karlovy Vary. It is known for spas, which include Karlovy Vary and Mariánské Lázně. ...

of the

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

. It has about 400 inhabitants. The town is historically associated with tin mining and is located in the

Ore Mountain Mining Region The Ore Mountain Mining Region (officially Erzgebirge/Krušnohoří Mining Region; , ) is an industrial heritage landscape, over 800 years old, in the border region of the Ore Mountains between the German state of Saxony and North Bohemia in the ...

, which is a

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...

World Heritage Site World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an treaty, international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural ...

. The historic town centre is well preserved and is protected as an urban monument zone.

Geography

Horní Blatná is located about north of

Karlovy Vary Karlovy Vary (; , formerly also spelled ''Carlsbad'' in English) is a spa town, spa city in the Karlovy Vary Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 49,000 inhabitants. It is located at the confluence of the Ohře and Teplá (river), Teplá ri ...

. It lies in the

Ore Mountains The Ore Mountains (, or ; ) lie along the Czech–German border, separating the historical regions of Bohemia in the Czech Republic and Saxony in Germany. The highest peaks are the Klínovec in the Czech Republic (German: ''Keilberg'') at ab ...

. The highest point is at above sea level.

History

The settlement of the area was closely connected with

tin Tin is a chemical element; it has symbol Sn () and atomic number 50. A silvery-colored metal, tin is soft enough to be cut with little force, and a bar of tin can be bent by hand with little effort. When bent, a bar of tin makes a sound, the ...

mining, the origins of which date back to the end of the 15th century. Horní Blatná was founded as a mining town in 1532. In 1548, it was promoted to a royal mining town by Emperor Ferdinand I and obtained various privileges. The railway was opened in 1898. According to the census of 1921, the town had a population of 2,090 Germans, 14 Czechoslovaks and 58 foreigners. The vast majority of the inhabitants were Roman Catholics, complemented by 62 Protestants and 2 people without religion. From 1938 to 1945, Horní Blatná was occupied by

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...

and administered as part of the

Reichsgau Sudetenland The Reichsgau Sudetenland was an administrative division of Nazi Germany from 1939 to 1945. It comprised the northern part of the ''Sudetenland'' territory, which was annexed from Czechoslovakia according to the 30 September 1938 Munich Agreement. ...

. After World War II, the town was returned to Czechoslovakia and the local German population was expelled.

Demographics

Transport

Horní Blatná is located on the Karlovy Vary–Johanngeorgenstadt railway line.

Sights

The town belongs to the so-called Abertamy – Boží Dar – Horní Blatná Mining Landscape, which is a

as part of

. The most valuable remnant of former mining in the area is the Blatenský water ditch. It is a technical monument, protected as a national cultural monument. It was built in 1540–1544 and was used for mining tin ore and for transporting wood. It is long and runs from Horní Blatná to

Boží Dar Boží Dar () is a town in Karlovy Vary District in the Karlovy Vary Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 300 inhabitants. Situated in the Ore Mountains at above sea level, it is considered the highest town in the Czech Republic. The town ...

. An educational trail runs along the ditch. The main landmark of the town is the Church of Saint Lawrence. It was built in the Saxon Renaissance style in 1594, originally as a Protestant church. In 1686, it was consecrated as a Catholic church. In 1754, it was rebuilt in the Baroque style and sculptural decoration was added. The Chapel of the Holy Cross is a large Baroque cemetery chapel from the first half of the 18th century.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Horni Blatna Cities and towns in the Czech Republic Populated places in Karlovy Vary District Towns in the Ore Mountains