Page:Guide to the Bohemian section and to the Kingdom of Bohemia - 1906.djvu/228

194194 We now go on to Chomutov (Komotau) (60 km). This is a city of considerable importance, having quite a variety of manufactures, paper-making, iron-rolling; the manufacture of Mannemann’s tubes, production of wads, coffee substitutes, chemicals etc. There are several important collieries within a short distance, which in itself is a great advantage to the manufacturers. Of architectural and historical interest are such churches as St. Mary’s Assumption (the decanal church) with the tomb of the eminent Bohemian Humanist Bohuslav Hasištejnský z Lobkovic (1460—1510), and St. Ignatius’ church with its monastery founded by the Jesuits. The townhall was formerly the seat of the German knights. In 1421, the town was burnt by the Hussites. At a distance of two miles is the Alum-lake in which fish-life is impossible. Leaving Chomutov we enter the district Rakovník famous for its culture of the best Bohemian hops, and soon arrive at Žatec (Saaz. 83 km). This is an industrial town and the centre of the hop trade. The old decanal church of St. Mary’s assumption founded 1206, and six others founded before the 14th century are worthy of attention, and in front of the town-hall in the Market-place there is a fine column of the Holy Virgin. Here the Oharka is spanned by the first suspension bridge erected in Bohemia (1820).

Leaving the river Oharka we pass through a fertile tract of country into the great coal-basin of Kladno (157 km). The town has a fine new town-hall, a castle built in 1740, and in the Market-place a handsome column of the Holy Virgin, by Dienzenhofer.

At 176 km, Liboc is reached with its hunting seat and deer-park Hvězda (,,Star*), the house being in the form of a sixrayed star) situated on the Bilá Hora (White mountain) where the army of the nobility was defeated in 1620 by imperial troops and the independance of the Bohemian crown territories was almost entirely lost. Soon the top of the iron tower on the Petřín comes into view and within a few minutes the train glides into the State railway station of Prague

An alternative route can he taken by changing at Chomutov on to a branch of the Ústecko-Teplická dráha