Litoměřice (German: Leitmeritz) is a town at the confluence of
the Elbe and Ohra in northern Bohemia, on the western edge of the
Polabská lowland (previously the popular name was the "golden strip
of the Czech land") in the district of Litoměřice in the Ústí
Region. Litoměřice is also known as the Garden of Bohemia due to its
fertile location. The total area of the city is a total of 17.99
km², the city has approximately 23 thousand inhabitants, but
together with the neighboring towns of Terezín, Bohušovice nad Ohří
and Lovosice, which are almost adjacent to Litoměřice, they form an
agglomeration with almost 40 thousand inhabitants. They became a
royal city between 1219 and 1228. The historical core of the city
has been a city heritage reserve since 1950, which includes a total
of 44 streets and nine squares. The city is home to the bishopric of
the Litoměřice diocese.
Soon after its foundation, the city
won a leading position in the northwestern part of Bohemia not only
thanks to the royal status and numerous privileges that the city
received over time, but mainly thanks to its location. The protected
location from the north and west by the Bohemian Central Mountains,
the navigable Elbe and the fertile region became a basic
prerequisite for the wealth and development of the city. Already in
the Middle Ages, Litoměřice became an important administrative and
religious center of Bohemia. What has always been an advantage of
the city, that is its closure in the valley ending in the Polabské
lowland between the Elbe and the beginning of the Bohemian Central
Highlands, became its disadvantage during the development of
industry. The absence of suitable land for the construction of
industrial areas prevented the further development of Litoměřice and
enabled the rise and later dominance of industrial Ústí nad Labem.
What the city has not lost, however, is its picturesqueness,
atmosphere and historical monuments.
Litoměřice is one of the oldest Czech cities. However, the existence
of the early medieval Przemysl administrative castle and its
agglomeration preceded the creation of the city. This fort was located
on Dómský pahork southeast of the core of the medieval city. It was
divided into its own castle and a forecourt, part of which was reserved
around 1057 for the chapter at the church of St. Stephen in the place
where the baroque cathedral of St. Stephen.
The origin of this
royal city falls between the years 1219 and 1228 (cannot be specified).
In the years 1257–1421, the town was home to the Crusader monastery.
From the 13th to the 17th century, the royal city maintained a dominant
position among the cities of the entire northern half of Bohemia. The
proof is the number of rights and privileges that various Czech
monarchs, including Charles IV, bestowed on them. The most serious were
the right of storage and the right of miles, which really only a few
Czech cities could be proud of. The right of warehouse meant that every
merchant who sailed on the Elbe (for example to Pirna or Dresden) had to
unload his goods in Litoměřice and offer them on the local market for
three days. Only then could he continue his journey. It happened very
often that his journey ended in Litoměřice. In those days, Litoměřice
was one of the most important river ports on the Elbe. Only three towns
in the north of Bohemia had the right of a mile, apart from Litoměřice,
Žatec and Most. Within a radius of one Czech mile, no gainful activity
(craft, pub, etc.) operated by townspeople was allowed. The size of the
Czech mile fluctuated, it used to be up to 10.5 kilometers.
In
1655, the city became the center of the newly established Litoměřice
diocese. During the communist regime, the Faculty of Theology and
Theology was also located here - see CMBF.
The predominantly
Czech Litoměřice experienced an influx of ethnic Germans and, to a
lesser extent, Italians after the defeat of the estate uprising (1620).
Nevertheless, Czech was still the main language, until the Theresian and
Josephine reforms (from 1739, German penetrated into the city books,
from 1775, German was the language of instruction in the city school).
Karel Hynek Mácha
Karel Hynek Mácha came to Litoměřice in the
second half of September 1836 to secure a position as a law clerk with
the lawyer Josef Filip Duras on the recommendation of his friend Alois
Pravoslav Trojan. He took up this position on September 29, according to
other sources on October 1. He lived in rented house No. 177 on Janské
schody, which belonged to shoemaker Franz Lorenzo. In addition to the
shoe shop, the house also had a wine bar. Mách's apartment was on the
first floor and consisted of an entrance hall and two bedrooms. Mácha
fell ill in Litoměřice around October 20, but already on the 23rd he
participated in firefighting. The illness returned at the beginning of
November, on the 5th, Mách's condition worsened and he died on November
6, 1836. He was buried in Litoměřice on November 8, the day he was to
marry Eleonora Šomková. The poet's brother Michal Mácha attended the
funeral.
Mách's grave was unmarked and desolate for a long time,
in 1846, mainly due to the merit of Karel Havlíček Borovský, the
tombstone was provided with the date of birth and death and the quote "I
have a long way, my call is in vain!" On May 1, 1861, at the instigation
of Litoměřice theologians, it was placed in the Litoměřice cemetery near
Máchov a monument was unveiled at the grave and a commemorative plaque
at the house where he died. The memorial plaque was torn down and
destroyed during the anti-Czech demonstration on December 15, 1897. It
was not placed on the house again until 1936, and in the same year a
statue of Karel Hynk Mácha by the sculptor Václav Blažek was unveiled
next to the Litoměřice theater. In 1938, after the German occupation of
the Czechoslovak border, the plaque and the statue were removed again.
At the beginning of October 1938, thanks to the then governor of the
Národní banka Karl Engliš, Mach's remains were exhumed by gravedigger
Hans Knobloch in Litoměřice and transported to Prague. Mach's monument
in the cemetery was dismantled by Czechoslovak soldiers retreating from
the occupation and also transported to Prague.
20th century
After the declaration of Czechoslovak independence, Litoměřice joined
the newly created state unit of German Bohemia. Litoměřice was the last
town of Deutschböhmen that surrendered to the invading Czechoslovak
armies only on December 27, 1918.
Until the end of the Second
World War, the population of German nationality also predominated.
Therefore, after Munich, Bohemia and Moravia did not fall under the
Protectorate, but belonged to the Sudetenland, which was annexed to
Hitler's Greater German Reich. The majority of today's Czech population
immigrated to the city, like elsewhere in the Sudetenland, only after
the post-war displacement of the population of German nationality.
The nearby Radobýl hill is also famous for being the last time the
Czech poet Karel Hynek Mácha fled from it when he saw the burning barns
in Litoměřice. He then became fatally ill. It is erroneously stated that
during the Second World War, an extensive underground factory was built
by the Nazis under its surface, Richard, this is not the case. Radobyl
is an igneous basalt suk and a similar structure would not be possible
here. The Richard underground factory was built by the Nazis in an
occupied underground limestone mine under the nearby Bídnice hill. For
the purpose of building the Richard underground factory, the Nazis set
up the largest concentration camp in the territory of today's Czech
Republic with a crematorium in Litoměřice. 18,000 prisoners of many
nationalities passed through the camp, of which 4,500 perished in the
camp. The factory, which, like the mine, had three parts Richard I.
Richard II. and Richard III. however, the Germans managed to put into
operation only part of the Richard I mine, where they produced parts for
tank engines. An interesting fact is that the concentration camp was not
liberated by Soviet troops like Litoměřice, but that the camp commander
already dissolved it on the morning of May 5, 1945. Unfortunately, the
freed prisoners brought the typhus epidemic, which ran rampant in the
camp, to the neighboring Litoměřice.
After the end of the Second
World War on May 10, 1945, Litoměřice was bombed by the Russian Air
Force, which tried to prevent the retreating German army from being
captured by the Americans by destroying the bridge over the Elbe. Among
the retreating German soldiers, there was a mistaken belief that the
left-bank territory of the Elbe was occupied by the Americans. That was
true, but 150 Km west down the Elbe River. The bombing did not damage
the bridge, but around 10 houses in Dlouhá Street and around the Beseda
cinema (currently a gym) were destroyed. The bombs also destroyed the
gymnasium building in Jezuitská Street, where Josef Jungmann taught
Czech in the years 1799-1815 (a commemorative plaque on building no. 20
reminds of this).
Since 1852, the city had the status of a
district city. Until 2002, when the district offices were abolished, the
district office was located here. Today, Litoměřice is a municipality
with extended scope.
Litoměřice used to be an important military
town, along with nearby Terezín. There are two large barracks in the
city. After 2000, it was practically abandoned by the army. The
Litoměřice municipal council is looking for (2007) a new social and
economic application for both buildings.
21st century
Of the
modern history of the city, it is certainly worth mentioning the large
catastrophic flood in August 2002, which significantly affected (like
most municipalities and cities located by the Elbe river) above all the
entire lower part of the city and which made the otherwise very strong
road traffic across the river completely impossible, as there was to
flood the Želetice district on the left bank of the Elbe.
Among
the most important activities are the reconstruction of the historic
city center and the reconstruction of the castle. In addition, the
Václav Havel park "U hvězdárny" was built. Jiráskovy sady, the largest
park in Litoměřice, recently underwent renovation. In 2010, with the
help of the Ústí Region, the František Chábera bridge over the Elbe
River was completed, which helped solve and improve the traffic
situation in the city.
The city is located at the southern foot of the Český středohoří on the right bank of the Elbe River, into which the Ohře River flows on the opposite side of the Elbe from the south – from the nearby town of Terezín. During the Austro-Hungarian era, the city was a popular pensioner's paradise because it has one of the warmest climates in the Czech Republic. Based on this, vines have been cultivated on the slopes of the Elbe since ancient times. Near the city is Radobýl Hill, which forms a natural dominant feature of the city.
Railway - either from Litoměřice station, the city to Ústí nad Labem,
Děčín on one side and Štětí, Mělník and Kolín and vice versa. Or from
the upper railway station to nearby Lovosice, more distant Česká Lípa
and Liberec (both railway lines pass through the city, cross each other,
but are not connected to each other in any way for the purposes of mass
passenger transport). The line running along the river from Lysá nad
Labem to Ústí nad Labem and Děčín is the main line, originally part of
the Austrian North-West Railway from Vienna via Znojmo and Děčín to
Berlin. Nádraží Litoměřice město is a small express train station, the
line from Lovosice to Česká Lípa is a secondary line.
Road – Three
main roads lead through Litoměřice: I/15, II/261 and II/247. The city
currently also has a fast highway connection with Prague. You can get
off the D8 highway from the highway exit in Lovosice and you can quickly
get to the city by following the new feeder, road II/247, which also
includes the recently commissioned General Chábera bridge. It is also
possible to get off the D8 at Doksan and continue to the city on the
II/608 via Terezín.
Walking between two banks - there are currently 2
bridges in the city. The older one is the steel Tyrš bridge over the
Elbe river, which connects the left bank of the Elbe and Ohře rivers
with the right bank of the Elbe river. Since December 2009, the new
General Chábera road bridge on the western feeder II/247 to Litoměřice
has been in operation in the area between Litoměřice and Lovosice.
during floods.
Bus – public transport on the route Prague, Roudnice
nad Labem, Terezín, Lovosice, Ústí nad Labem is also provided by regular
regular buses of public carriers, the journey to Prague takes
approximately 1 hour, the journey to Lovosice approximately 10 minutes,
the journey to Ústí nad Labem approximately half clock.
Local - city
bus transport in Litoměřice marked with the letters B and D,
Non-transferable tariff, it is not possible to pre-pay a timed fare.
Since May 2018, city bus transport in Litoměřice has been free. The
council approved the proposal, inspired by nearby Lovosice, on March 2,
2018. The city's annual expenses should thus increase by about 700,000
crowns.
Říční - Litoměřice, thanks to its favorable location on the
Elbe River, has also been an inland river port for a long time. Compared
to other cities located on the navigable sections of the Elbe, however,
this port is not used much for the time being. Tourist cruise ships
sailing down the river from nearby Saxony sometimes dock here. The
cruise ship Porta Bohemica also docks here regularly.
Cycling – an
important cycle path runs, among other things, also along the Elbe river
Karel Hynk Mácha's stone theater in Litoměřice, an otherwise cozy and
pleasant theater scene, underwent a thorough reconstruction in the 1980s
and 1990s, the stage is without regular theater operations and a
permanent professional ensemble, it is used for touring theater, hobby
art activities, concerts and other social purposes
Cultural House in
Litoměřice, construction started in the 1980s, completed in the 1990s,
perhaps the most important center of living culture in the city. It
replaced the original unsatisfactory premises "On the Castle" in the
premises of the former Litoměřice Castle, where concerts, balls,
educational courses, seminars and other social events are held
Museum
of local history in Litoměřice, exposition on the history of the city
and the whole of Litoměřice
The North Bohemian Gallery of Fine Arts
in Litoměřice, an exhibition hall with regular exhibitions for important
Czech and foreign artists, a permanent exhibition of naive painting, the
largest exhibition of this type of art in the Czech Republic, the Museum
of the Litoměřice Diocese is part of the gallery
Memorial site for
Karel Hynk Mácha – memorial shrine to K. H. Mácha on the eastern slope
of the Cathedral Hill
Zahrada Cech Exhibition Center, a place for
business, social and cultural life all year round, various cultural
events take place here as part of individual exhibitions, especially
concerts by performers from the field of popular music, gatherings of
historic motor vehicles and other accompanying events
The Litoměřice
organ summer music festival takes place in St. Stephen's Cathedral
Existence of several children's or youth choirs, choir festival
Litoměřická notička
Litoměřice wine harvest, a traditional cultural
and social event usually takes place on the penultimate weekend in
September at Mírové náměstí and on Strělecká ostrov
Litoměřice
underground, local history exhibition of cellars and catacombs related
to the history of the city (city lapidary)
Viewing terrace in the
Kalich building (Litoměřice Municipal Office building) on Mírové
náměstí
Headquarters of the Administration of the Protected Landscape
Area of the České Středohoří, which is a specialized workplace of
state nature protection (housed in the heritage-protected bastion of the
original Litoměřice ramparts)
Karel Hynk Mácha City Library on Mírové
náměstí
Litoměřice cinema May with permanent operation, in the summer
also a summer cinema on Strělecký ostrov.