Žatec and the Landscape of Saaz Hops

Beer drinkers everywhere owe something to Žatec, the Bohemian town that gives its German name — Saaz — to the world's most celebrated hop variety. Hops have been grown in the fertile fields along the river Ohře for centuries, and the townscape tells the story: a medieval core, the so-called Prague Suburb, and a dense concentration of 19th- and 20th-century warehouses, drying towers and certification halls. UNESCO inscribed the town and its hop landscape as a World Heritage Site in 2023.