Teplice

For other places with the same name, see Teplice.

Teplice (Czech pronunciation: [ˈtɛplɪtsɛ] ^ⓘ, until 1948 Teplice-Šanov; German: Teplitz, Teplitz-Schönau) is a city in the Ústí nad Labem Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 51,000 inhabitants. It is the most populous Czech spa town, followed by Karlovy Vary. The historic city centre is well preserved and is protected by law as an urban monument zone.

Teplice
Statutory city
Castle square with the Church of Saint John the Baptist
Flag Coat of arms
Teplice Location in the Czech Republic
Coordinates: 50°38′40″N 13°49′55″E / 50.64444°N 13.83194°E / 50.64444; 13.83194
Country	Czech Republic
Region	Ústí nad Labem
District	Teplice
First mentioned	1158
Government
• Mayor	Jiří Štábl (ANO)
Area
• Total	23.78 km^2 (9.18 sq mi)
Elevation	228 m (748 ft)
Population  (2023-01-01)^[1]
• Total	50,843
• Density	2,100/km^2 (5,500/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+1 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+2 (CEST)
Postal code	415 01
Website	www.teplice.cz

Administrative division

 

Fountain and the city hall

Teplice comprises the administrative parts of Teplice, Hudcov, Nová Ves, Prosetice, Řetenice, Sobědruhy and Trnovany.^[2]

Etymology

The name Teplice is an Old Czech word, meaning "hot spring".^[3]

Geography

Teplice is located about 14 kilometres (9 mi) west of Ústí nad Labem and 72 km (45 mi) northwest of Prague. The northern part of the municipal territory lies in the Most Basin, the southern part lies in the Central Bohemian Uplands. The highest point is the hill Doubravská hora at 393 m (1,289 ft) above sea level. There are several small fish ponds in the territory.

History

According to the 1541 Annales Bohemorum by chronicler Wenceslaus Hajek, the thermal springs are fabled to have been discovered as early as 762; however, the first authentic mention of the baths occurred in the 16th century. The settlement of Trnovany was first documented in a 1057 deed, while Teplice proper was first mentioned in 1154, when Judith of Thuringia, queen consort of King Vladislaus II of Bohemia, founded a Benedictine convent near the hot springs, the second in Bohemia.^[4] A fortified town arose around the monastery, which was destroyed in the course of the Hussite Wars after the 1426 Battle of Aussig. In the late 15th century, queen consort Joanna of Rožmitál, wife of King George of Poděbrady, had a castle erected on the ruins.

 

City seal from c. 1750 with the head of John the Baptist, the patron saint of the local Benedictine monastery

Teplice figures in the history of the Thirty Years' War, when it was a possession of the Protestant Bohemian noble Vilém Kinský, who was assassinated together with Generalissimo Albrecht von Wallenstein at Cheb in 1634. The Habsburg emperor Ferdinand II thereafter enfeoffed castle and town to his general Johann von Aldringen, who nevertheless was killed in battle in the same year, and Teplice fell to his sister Anna Maria von Clary-Aldringen. Consequently, and until 1945, Teplice Castle was the primarily seat of the princely House of Clary-Aldringen. After the Thirty Years' War, the devastated town was the destination of many German settlers.

After a blaze in 1793, large parts of the town were rebuilt in a Neoclassical style. The health resort was a popular venue for wealthy bourgeois like the poet Johann Gottfried Seume, who died on his stay in 1810, or Ludwig van Beethoven, who met here with Johann Wolfgang von Goethe in 1812; as well as for European monarchs. During the Napoleonic War of the Sixth Coalition, Teplice in August 1813 was the site where Emperor Francis I of Austria, Emperor Alexander I of Russia and King Frederick William III of Prussia first signed the triple alliance against Napoleon I of France that led to the coalition victory at the nearby Battle of Kulm.

 

Teplice Castle

In 1895, Teplice merged with neighbouring Lázně Šanov (Schönau). Upon the dissolution of Austria-Hungary after World War I and the 1919 Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, the predominantly German-speaking population found itself in newly established Czechoslovakia. According to the 1930 census there were 30 799 people living in the city (5,232 persons of Czechoslovak ethnicity, 12 persons of Hungarian ethnicity, 23,127 persons of German ethnicity and 667 of Jewish ethnicity).^[5] Right-wing political groups like the German National Socialist Worker's Party referred to themselves as Volksdeutsche and began to urge for a unification with Germany, their efforts laid the foundation for the rise of the Sudeten German Party under Konrad Henlein after 1933. With the Sudetenland, Teplice was annexed by Nazi Germany according to the 1938 Munich Agreement and incorporated into Reichsgau Sudetenland.^{[citation needed]} In 1930, 3,213 Jews lived in Teplice, 10% of the population. Under the Nazi regime they faced the Holocaust in the Sudetenland. Many fled and the Teplice Synagogue was burnt during Kristallnacht.^[6][7]

 

Memorial to fallen pilots of the 15th division of the US Air Force

After World War II the Czechoslovak government enacted the Beneš decrees, whereafter the German-speaking majority of the population was expelled from Teplice. In 1945, the Princes of Clary-Aldringen, lords of Teplice since 1634, were expropriated.

In 1994, Jaroslav Kubera of the ODS became mayor of Teplice and he held the position until 2018.

Demographics

Historical population

Year Pop. ±% 1869 15,469 —     1880 23,649 +52.9% 1890 31,056 +31.3% 1900 44,626 +43.7% 1910 50,896 +14.1%	Year Pop. ±% 1921 52,655 +3.5% 1930 56,088 +6.5% 1950 41,891 −25.3% 1961 49,360 +17.8% 1970 52,941 +7.3%	Year Pop. ±% 1980 53,964 +1.9% 1991 53,004 −1.8% 2001 51,060 −3.7% 2011 49,640 −2.8% 2021 48,428 −2.4%
Source: Censuses^[8]^[9]

Economy

 

Svobody Square

The largest employers based in the city are AGC Flat Glass Czech (manufacturer of flat glass for the construction and automotive industries) and Severočeská servisní (a company that deals with construction and maintenance of pipelines), both with more than 1,000 employees.^[10]

Spa

One of the most important employers is the spa. The thermal mineral springs were mentioned already in 1154, which makes the spa the oldest in the country and Central Europe.^[11] The Pravřídlo spring reaches a temperature of 41 °C.^[12] The spa focuses on treatment of musculoskeletal disorders, nervous system diseases, and vascular diseases.^[13]

Culture

The city used to be nicknamed "Little Paris" and "Salon of Europe" for its spa architecture and cultural level until World War II.^[14] The opening of the spa season is an annual three-day celebration with a rich cultural program.^[15]

Sport

Teplice is home to the professional football club FK Teplice playing in the Czech First League. The stadium Na Stínadlech is one of the largest in the country and has hosted international matches.

Sights

 

Doubravka Castle

The main landmark is Teplice Castle. It houses a regional museum with historic castle interiors and a library. In the inner courtyard of the castle, there is a unique Romanesque exposition with the remains of Queen Judith and the remains of a Romanesque basilica with a rarely preserved Romanesque crypt. Adjoining the castle is a large castle garden.^[16]

The Church of Saint John the Baptist is a baroque building from 1594, rebuilt in 1703 to its current form. Its tower is open to the public and serves as a lookout tower.^[17]

The neo-Gothic Church of Saint Bartholomew was built in 1884 for German population of Lutheran faith. After their expulsion, the church changed owners several times and ceased to serve its purpose. Today it is conserved as a cultural monument and there are expositions concerning the history of the Jewish community in Teplice, and other.^[18]

Doubravka Castle is a castle ruin located in Trnovany part of Teplice. It was built in 1483 and conquered in 1639 during the Thirty Years' War. The castle began to serve as a destination for walks and in the 19th century, a restaurant and the neo-Gothic extension were built. Today there is a restaurant and a private lookout tower.^[19]

Paleontology

Fossils of an elasmosaurid plesiosaur (large carnivorous marine reptile from the Cretaceous period) were found near Teplice at the end of the 19th century. In the village of Hudcov (a part of Teplice), plesiosaur Cimoliasaurus teplicensis was described in 1906 by Czech paleontologist Antonín Frič.^[20]

Notable people

• Julius von Payer (1841–1915), Austrian arctic explorer
• August Stradal (1860–1930), pianist
• Karl Pohlig (1864–1928), conductor
• Prince Siegfried von Clary-Aldringen (1848–1920), Austro-Hungarian diplomat
• Humbert Achamer-Pifrader (1900–1945), Austrian jurist and member of the SS
• Paul Kohner (1902–1988), Austrian-American film producer
• Frederick Kohner (1905–1986), Austrian-American writer
• Marianne Winder (1918–2001), British librarian
• Felix Holzmann (1921–2001), comedian
• Helmut Pfleger (born 1943), German chess grandmaster
• Jaromír Kohlíček (1953–2020), politician
• Bohdan Chlíbec (born 1963), poet
• Daniela Peštová (born 1970), model
• Robert Lang (born 1970), ice hockey player
• Lucie Králová (born 1982), Miss Czech Republic 2005

Residents

• Adam Adamandy Kochański (1631–1700), mathematician; died here
• Johann Gottfried Seume (1763–1810), poet; died here
• Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827), composer; began writing his Symphony No. 7 here in 1812
• Novalis (1772–1801), poet and philosopher; wrote his "Teplitz Fragments" while staying here^[21]
• Karl Ludwig von Ficquelmont (1777–1857), Austrian diplomat and statesman; resided here at his daughter's castle
• Dorothea de Ficquelmont (1804–1863); died here at her daughter's castle
• Richard Wagner (1813–1883), began composing the music to his opera Tannhäuser here during a vacation in 1843
• Adolf Kurrein (1846–1919), rabbi of Teplice from 1888
• Count Manfred von Clary-Aldringen (1852–1928), Austro-Hungarian statesman; resided here in his family's castle
• Otto Tetens (1865–1945), astronomer; died here
• Oscar Straus (1870–1954) worked here as a Kapellmeister
• Ruth von Mayenburg (1907–1993), writer; grew up here
• Kurt Eichhorn (1908–1994), conductor; worked here
• František Fajtl (1912–2006), fighter pilot and writer; studied here in 1928–1932

References

1. "Population of Municipalities – 1 January 2023". Czech Statistical Office. 23 May 2023.
2. "Části obcí". Územně identifikační registr ČR (in Czech). Retrieved 14 November 2023.
3. Lutterer, Ivan; Majtán, Ivan; Šrámek, Rudolf (1982). Zeměpisná jména Československa. Slovník vybraných zeměpisných jmen s výkladem jejich původu a historického vývoje (in Czech). Prague: Mladá Fronta. pp. 301–302.
4. "Historie" (in Czech). Lázně Teplice. Retrieved 25 November 2021.
5. Encyklopedie branné moci Republiky Československé, Jiří Fidler & Václav Sluka
6. Osterloh, Jörg (2015). "Sudetenland". In Gruner, Wolf; Osterloh, Jörg (eds.). The Greater German Reich and the Jews: Nazi Persecution Policies in the Annexed Territories 1935–1945. War and Genocide. Translated by Heise, Bernard. New York: Berghahn Books. pp. 68–98. ISBN 978-1-78238-444-1.
7. Kocourek, Ludomír (1997). "Das Schicksal der Juden im Sudetengau im Licht der erhaltenen Quellen" [The Fate of the Jews in Sudetengau in Light of the Surviving Sources]. Theresienstädter Studien und Dokumente (in German) (4): 86–104. CEEOL 155844.
8. "Historický lexikon obcí České republiky 1869–2011 – Okres Teplice" (in Czech). Czech Statistical Office. 21 December 2015. pp. 9–10.
9. "Population Census 2021: Population by sex". Public Database. Czech Statistical Office. 27 March 2021.
10. "Registr ekonomických subjektů". Business Register (in Czech). Czech Statistical Office. Retrieved 9 November 2023.
11. "Lázně Teplice v Čechách – nejstarší lázně střední Evropy" (in Czech). Lázně Teplice. Retrieved 25 November 2021.
12. "Thermal mineral spring". Lázně Teplice. Retrieved 25 November 2021.
13. "Treatment methods". Lázně Teplice. Retrieved 25 November 2021.
14. "#světovéČesko a malý pařížský výlet do Teplic" (in Czech). CzechTourism. 14 July 2021. Retrieved 21 July 2023.
15. "Lázeňská 2023" (in Czech). Lázně Teplice. Retrieved 21 July 2023.
16. "Teplický zámek" (in Czech). Město Teplice. Retrieved 15 July 2021.
17. "Kostel sv. Bartoloměje" (in Czech). Město Teplice. Retrieved 15 July 2021.
18. "Kostel sv. Jana Křtitele" (in Czech). Město Teplice. Retrieved 15 July 2021.
19. "Hrad Doubravka" (in Czech). Město Teplice. Retrieved 15 July 2021.
20. "Skutečná česká lochneska" (in Czech). Osel.cz. 20 March 2020. Retrieved 19 October 2023.
21. Novalis: Philosophical Writings

External links

 

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Teplice.

• Official website
• Historical Maps "Herrschaft Toeplitz" & Streetmap Toeplitz with different Views (A. F. Zuerner, Amsterdam, 18th century)
• Audioguide through Teplice