Cheb

Sister cities

• Bắc Ninh
• Tharandt
• Hof
• Dubai
• Nová Dubnica
• Nizhny Tagil

History

The earliest settlement in the area was a Slavic gord at what is now known as the Cheb Castle complex, north of the town centre. In 807 the district of today's Cheb was included in the new margraviate of East Franconia, which belonged at first to the Babenbergs, but from 906 to the margraves (marquis) of Vohburg. The first written mention of Cheb is from 1061. Děpolt II founded the castle on the site of the gord around 1125. In 1149, Cheb was described as a fortified marketplace. Emperor Frederick Barbarossa acquired Cheb in 1167. In 1203, it was first referred to as a town. It became the centre of a historical region called Egerland. On 5 May 1389, during a Reichstag between King Wenceslaus IV and a group of Imperial Free Cities of southwest Germany, the Treaty of Eger was agreed upon, after Wenceslaus had failed to secure his interests in the town. On 3 October 1938, the town was visited by Adolf Hitler; shortly afterward Wehrmacht troops marched into the Sudetenland and seized control. From 1938 until 1945, the town was annexed to Germany and was administered as part of the Reichsgau Sudetenland. The Gestapo and Ordnungspolizei operated a prison in Cheb, whose prisoners were subjected to forced labour. Cheb was liberated by the 97th Infantry Division of the United States Army on 25 April 1945. After the end of World War II the region was returned to Czechoslovakia. Under the Beneš decrees and Potsdam Agreement of the same year, the German-speaking majority was expelled.

Geography

Cheb is located about southwest of Karlovy Vary, on the border with Germany. The northern and western parts of the municipal territory lie in the Fichtel Mountains. The rest of the territory lies in the Cheb Basin, named after the town. The highest point is the hill Zelená hora at above sea level. The Ohře River flows through the town. There are two large reservoirs in the municipal territory: Skalka (northeast of the town and supplied by the Ohře) and Jesenice (southeast of the town and supplied by the Wondreb). There are also several small fishponds, especially in the southern part of the municipal territory. Cheb has a humid continental climate (Köppen: Dfb; Trewartha: Dclo), with average temperatures in January and February below freezing and an average temperature of in December. The average summer temperature is around , and it is not uncommon to see days with temperatures above . The town enters spring in late April and winter in early October.