Cheb is a town in the Karlovy Vary Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 32,000 inhabitants. It is on the river Ohře, at the foot of the Fichtel Mountains near the border with Germany. Before the 1945 expulsion of the German-speaking population, the town was the centre of the German-speaking region known as Egerland, part of the Northern Austro-Bavarian dialect area.

There are two reservoirs in the municipal area of Cheb: Skalka (north-east of the town and fed by the Ohře) and Jesenice (south-east of the town).

Economy

After the Velvet Revolution many goods were cheaper in Cheb than in nearby Germany, and it became common for Germans to shop and spend time in Cheb. Because of this the town developed bilingual signage and currency exchange points.

Transport

Cheb Airport is located 4,5 km to the south-east. It is the second-oldest airport in the country and the oldest still existing.

Sights

On the rock to the north-west lies Cheb castle, built in the 12th century and now mostly in ruins. The main attractions are the Chapel of Saints Erhard and Ursula, the Black Tower and the ruins of a palace; all from around 1180. The chapel has two storeys; the lower storey is in Romanesque style, while the upper storey is Gothic. An eight-cornered opening connects the two storeys. The upper-storey contains a ribbed vault supported on four polygonal columns with statues depicting sins, including a statue of a prostitute and Onan. In the banquet room of this castle, Wallenstein’s officers Terzky, Kinsky, Illo and Neumann were assassinated on 25 February 1634. Wallenstein himself was murdered few hours later by Captain Devereux in the burgomaster’s house at the main square. The house, a 15th-century gothic town hall (Pachelbel House), was transformed in 1872, it contains many historical relics and antiquities of the town of Cheb.

On the Market Place dating from the 13th century are a group of houses originating from the late-Gothic period known as Špalíček. This distinctive feature of the market place is a bizarre complex of eleven houses. The outline of the two blocks can still be seen on the oldest existing records of 1472.

The Green House on the market place belonged to the well-known Wrendl dynasty, whose family crest lies above the entrance. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe frequently spent time here.

The Church of St. Nicholas was established in the 13th century as a three-naved basilica, of which the western portal and the lower part of the tower remain in place. The three-part nave, presbytery and sacristy stem from the Gothic era. After the fire of 1742, the tower was rebuilt with a baroque cupola, after the design of the indigenous architect Balthasar Neumann. The top of the twin steeples were destroyed by German artillery fire during World War II and restored in summer 2008.

The Franciscan Church is located in the town centre. The Church of St. Clara was built between 1708 and 1711 according to a design of Christoph Dientzenhofer.

The early-baroque Pilgrimage area Maria Loreto is located in a local part of Starý Hrozňatov. The annex, which had lain in ruins since 1990 has since been renovated through the initiative of an inhabitant of the neighbouring town Waldsassen.

In popular culture

In Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes story “A Scandal in Bohemia”, it is referred to by Holmes as ‘Egria’.