This article is about the city. For the acronym, see MOST.

Most is a city in the northwest of the Czech Republic, in Ústí nad Labem Region. It is situated between the Czech Central Mountains (Czech: České středohoří) and Ore Mountains (Czech: Krušné hory), approximately 77 km (48 miles) northwest of Prague along the Bílina River and southwest of Ústí nad Labem. Its name, a translation of German Brüx, means "bridge" in English.

History

The Latin Chronica Boemorum mentions a Slavic settlement below the Gnevin Castle (Czech: Hněvín) called Gnevin Pons (Czech: Hněvínský most) in 1040. Through the swamps there led a merchant route from Prague to Freiberg. The network of wooden bridges was built to provide comfortable passages through this territory. Hneva from the Hrabisic dynasty established a military stronghold to protect caravans. Under this stronghold the village that would become Most developed.

In 1227 Kojata, the last of the Hrabisics, passed his property to the cloister of the Knights of the Cross. Since 1238 the royal town was owned by the Přemyslids and it became a rich city with many churches. Kings Otakar II, John of Luxembourg, and Charles IV all granted Most city rights. In the 14th century, due to colonization the city became predominantly German.

During the 15th and 16th centuries the city was hit by several fires. About 1517, city reconstruction began the foundations of several significant facilities, including the new dean's church and the Renaissance city hall.

During the Thirty Years' War, the city was occupied by Swedish troops.

The German-speaking population of the city largely fled before the Red Army during World War II.

As a young city Most does not have many historical sights, yet there are two important ones: Gnevin Castle and the Gothic Church. On the other hand there are many amusement facilities that can be visited: planetarium, observatory, autodrome, aquadrome or hippodrome.

During the sixties, Most's historic center was completely destroyed to make room for the expanding lignite mines, a process that lasted until 1970. This process involved the destruction of many historic monuments, including a brewery dating from the fifteenth century and a theater designed in 1910 by Alexander Graf, a Viennese architect who designed many theaters across Central Europe, including ones in Ostrava and Ljubljana. One building, however, was preserved: the Gothic Church of the Annunciation of the Virgin Mary (Kostel Nanebevzetí Panny Marie), built between 1517 and 1594 and designed by Jakob Heilmann of Schweinfurt. Over 28 days, it was moved by train to the new town, 841 meters away, at the rate of roughly 1 meter per day. This building was mentioned in Guinness Book of World Records as the heaviest building ever moved on wheels.

Nowadays (2005), Most is said to be one of the darkest cities of the Czech Republic. During the communist era it turned to dusty and dirty miner town. The mining itself has long tradition in the area. Extensive mining operations are continuing after the year 2000, but now completely under control of foreign corporation. Many surrounding villages are planned to be abandoned due to surface mining.

The city of Most is known for its huge share of people living in panelaks. The decimated environment along with urban development has given the city a depressing feeling. On the other side the concentration of population in the flats enabled remarkable development of informational technologies. For example the cable television project functional in 1988 was something unusual for any city in Czech Republic. Now many people have access to the broadband internet at prices well below average in the Czech Republic.

The new city is well designed, especially the infrastructure and traffic situation is quite good in comparsion with cities of similar size. The social situation of local people is bad. With unemployment rate of nearly 25% (2005) the locality far the worst in the Czech Republic. This number is caused by huge workforce of aging unqalified miners. Also flat accommodation is quite cheap so it pushes more unemployed people from other regions to live there and raising the number.

A bright side is that Most, due to heavy social and EU funding and the development of local business and industry, is beginning to recover.

Industry

Unsurprisingly, heavy industry has shaped the image and development of postwar Most. While this region had been a major producer of the Most region is rich in lignite It is the heart of the northern Bohemian lignite-mining region and serves as an important industrial railway junction. Other industries in Most are ceramics, important steel, and chemicals.

As environmental conditions have improved in recent years, the growing of apples and grape vines has developed.

City districts

• The well-known area of Rudolice (Chánov) was created during communist era to separate Roma (Gypsies) out of society. It has become a completely devastated ghetto.

• Vtelno used to be a village near Most. When the new city was built near it, Vtelno became an integral part of Most. It has a church, a historical Baroque manor, and many monoliths and sculptures that have been collected during an era of demolition of villages in the region (due to coal mining).

Famous People

• Ice hockey player Martin Ručínský was born here in 1971.

Neighboring cities

References

• Encyclopaedia Britannica
• Merriam Webster's Geographical Dictionary, 3rd edition

External links

• The city of Most - Czech Republic (The official website)
• The demolishment and construction of the city - (The website is in Czech)

Cities and towns in the Czech Republic | Most District

Most (město) | Most (Tschechien) | Most | Most (stad) | Most (miasto w Czechach) | Мост (город)