Strašice is a municipality and village in

Rokycany District Rokycany District () is a district in the Plzeň Region of the Czech Republic. Its capital is the town of Rokycany. Administrative division Rokycany District is formed by only one administrative district of municipality with extended competence: ...

in the

Plzeň Region Plzeň Region or Plzeňský Region (also known as Pilsen Region; ) is an Regions of the Czech Republic, administrative unit () of the Czech Republic, located in the western part of the historical land of Bohemia and named after the capital, Plz ...

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 2,800 inhabitants.

Etymology

The name is derived from the personal name Strach, meaning "the village of Strach's people".

Geography

Strašice is located about east of

Rokycany Rokycany (; ) is a town in the Plzeň Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 14,000 inhabitants. The historic town centre is well preserved and is protected as an Cultural monument (Czech Republic)#Monument zones, urban monument zone. Admini ...

and east of

Plzeň Plzeň (), also known in English and German as Pilsen (), is a city in the Czech Republic. It is the Statutory city (Czech Republic), fourth most populous city in the Czech Republic with about 188,000 inhabitants. It is located about west of P ...

. It lies in the Brdy Highlands. The highest point is the hill Kočka at above sea level. The Klabava River flows through the southern part of the municipal territory. Most of the territory is forested and belongs to the Brdy Protected Landscape Area. There are several small fishponds around the village. The southern tip of the municipal territory is formed by two notable ponds called Hořejší Padrťský rybník (with an area of ) and Dolejší Padrťský rybník (with an area of about ). They were founded in the 16th century and they are the largest bodies of water in the region. Species of birds that are endangered within the country nest here, e.g.

white-tailed eagle The white-tailed eagle (''Haliaeetus albicilla''), sometimes known as the 'sea eagle', is a large bird of prey, widely distributed across temperate Eurasia. Like all eagles, it is a member of the family Accipitridae (or accipitrids) which also ...

black stork The black stork (''Ciconia nigra'') is a large bird in the stork family Ciconiidae. It was first described by Carl Linnaeus in the 10th edition of his ''Systema Naturae''. Measuring on average from beak tip to end of tail with a wingspan, t ...

common snipe The common snipe (''Gallinago gallinago'') is a small, stocky wader native to the Old World. Distribution and habitat The breeding habitats are marshes, bogs, tundra and wet meadows throughout the Palearctic. In the north, the distribution li ...

and

gray heron The grey heron (''Ardea cinerea'') is a long-legged wading bird of the heron family, Ardeidae, native throughout temperate Europe and Asia, and also parts of Africa. It is resident in much of its range, but some populations from the more norther ...

. There is a peat bog along the eastern shore of Hořejší Padrťský pond.

History

The first written mention of Strašice is from 1349, when the village was owned by the

Rosenberg family The House of Rosenberg ( or ''Páni z Rožmberka'') was a prominent Bohemian noble family that played an important role in Czech medieval history from the 13th century until 1611. Members of this family held posts at the Prague royal (and ...

. In the 16th century, it was acquired by the

Lobkowicz family The House of Lobkowicz (''Lobkovicové'' in modern Czech, sg. ''z Lobkovic''; ''Lobkowitz'' in German) is an important Bohemian noble family that dates back to the 14th century and is one of the oldest noble families of the region. Over the cent ...

. In 1594, properties of this family were confiscated by the royal chamber. In these times, iron industry began to develop. In 1603, one of the first

blast furnace A blast furnace is a type of metallurgical furnace used for smelting to produce industrial metals, generally pig iron, but also others such as lead or copper. ''Blast'' refers to the combustion air being supplied above atmospheric pressure. In a ...

s in the

Czech lands The Czech lands or the Bohemian lands (, ) is a historical-geographical term which denotes the three historical regions of Bohemia, Moravia, and Czech Silesia out of which Czechoslovakia, and later the Czech Republic and Slovakia, were formed. ...

was built here. Strašice was promoted to 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 rura ...

, but after the

Thirty Years' War The Thirty Years' War, fought primarily in Central Europe between 1618 and 1648, was one of the most destructive conflicts in History of Europe, European history. An estimated 4.5 to 8 million soldiers and civilians died from battle, famine ...

, it became again just a village. The population devastated by the war was partly supplemented by migrants from Germany. From the 17th to the 20th century, metallurgy was joined by the production of nails as the main livelihood of the local inhabitants. In the 18th century, there were three blast furnaces and five

hammer mill A hammer mill, hammer forge or hammer works was a workshop in the pre-industrial era that was typically used to manufacture semi-finished, wrought iron products or, sometimes, finished agricultural or mining tools, or military weapons. The featur ...

s in Strašice. In 1873, Strašice was again promoted to a market town, but it lost the title after World War II.

Demographics

Transport

There are no railways or major roads passing through the municipality.

Sights

The main landmark of Strašice is the Church of Saint Lawrence. It dates from the mid-14th century. In the second half of the 18th century, the church was rebuilt in the Baroque style to its present form. A notable building is the Tři Trubky hunting lodge. It was built in the historicist style in 1888–1890 according to the design by

Camillo Sitte Camillo Sitte (17 April 1843 – 16 November 1903) was an Austrian architect, painter and urban theorist whose work influenced urban planning and land use regulation. Today, Sitte is best remembered for his 1889 book, ''City Planning According to ...

. It is among the last preserved buildings in the former Brdy military area. Today it serves as a recreational facility. In the former farm facilities next to the hunting lodge, the visitor's centre of the Brdy Protected Landscape Area was opened in 2023.

Notable people

* Franz Götz (1755–1815), composer and violinist * Jiří Feureisl (1931–2021), footballer