The landscape of Žatec hops is listed on the UNESCO list

Riyadh/Prague/Zatec - Zatec and the landscape of Zatec hops have today become part of the UNESCO World Heritage. The inscription was decided by the intergovernmental World Heritage Committee at its 45th extended session in Riyadh. For the Czech Republic, this is the seventeenth entry on the list of world natural and cultural heritage. At the same time, it is the first hop-growing landscape in the world to receive this status. The Czech Ministry of Culture informed CTK today about the inscription.

The nomination of the hop-growing landscape followed the original concept titled Zatec – the City of Hops, which the World Heritage Committee recommended for revision in 2018 so that it would include the still productive landscape.

"I am extremely pleased that this nomination was successfully inscribed on the World Heritage List, as hop cultivation, our green gold, is inextricably linked to Czech culture. I believe that the new World Heritage site will not only confirm its exceptional values but also provide an impulse for further development, better protection, and strengthening of cooperation in the field of heritage conservation, tourism, and promotion," said Minister of Culture Martin Baxa (ODS).

The inscription will bring new opportunities for development and promotion to the city. It has been striving for inclusion on the UNESCO list since 2007, when the city of Zatec itself was inscribed on the indicative list. "This is the seventeenth entry of the Czech Republic on this prestigious list, and it is also the very first time that a hop-growing area has been inscribed. This alone testifies to the uniqueness that we can rightfully be proud of," said the mayor of Zatec, Radim Laibl (ANO).

Zatec and the landscape of Zatec hops represent a testament to a strong, centuries-long cultural tradition of hop cultivation and processing. The inscribed site consists of two parts, which together illustrate the cycle of cultivation, processing, and trading with the world's most famous hop variety – Zatec Early Red.

The first part consists of a landscape with hop gardens and the villages of Trnovany and Steknik, including a castle of the same name. The second part represents the historical center of Zatec along with its 19th-century industrial district, which has the highest concentration of buildings related to hop processing and trading. Both parts are connected by the Ohře River.

The site and its hop-building heritage testify to a tradition lasting over 700 years, which continues to this day despite significant demographic changes in various periods of history. The landscape contains a number of elements, from traditional hop gardens to buildings used for drying, packing, certifying, and storing hops, as well as parts of the historical transport network of roads, railways, the Ohře River, and other watercourses.