Historical core of Žatec belongs to one of the well-preserved medieval town structures with history over 1000 years. It was only partly modified in modern times. It does not disappoint but there are better examples in Czechia. The main reason why it is proposed as WHS is the long tradition of cultivation and processing of hops in Žatec municipality that sounds interesting and refreshing taking into account that Czechs are No.1 in consummation of beer in the world. Originally, hops was dried and further processed directly within the medieval walls as documented by shape of several roofs there. The mass production of hops led to design of new neighborhood - Prague Suburb in 19th, which preserved the shape of a standard town, but consisted mostly of buildings, factories, workshops and also quite a lot of chimneys, all related to hops drying and processing.

You can find two hops related permanent exhibitions in Prague Suburb. It is better to start with the official "museum of hops". Only "advantage" of the other one - "Temple of Hops and Beer" is that you can climb the modern hops tower with nice view (photo of the core zone of Prague Suburb). The tower was very criticized by ICOMOS in the first evaluation in 2018, so, maybe the tower will be pulled down?? I do not know... If you prefer beer drinking to museums, there is in fact only one good possibility - brewery&pub close to the museum of hops (beer is very good there!).

Besides the modern disrupting structures like the hops tower, desolate state of several building in the Suburb, the main problem of Žatec as hops town is that it is not easy to find and understand the OUV. The original historical district was also included to the original nomination in 2018, but there is almost no reason for that as its relation to hops is rather indirect. Prague Suburb is quite interesting and relatively compact structure of solid 19th century architecture, but it is not outstanding, and the chimney forest praised in the nomination text is not so spectacular and unique. It is also very problematic that the original hops-related function of the buildings is not preserved - the hops factories were moved to modern suburbs in 20th century. Another serious criticism of ICOMOS was that the fields for hops cultivations or other buildings such as farms or historical structures for hops drying in the countryside around Žatec were NOT included to the nomination. They are many hops field around Žatec, and they look very interesting.

We will see if the re-nomination in 2020 is more convincing than original one from 2018. My opinion is that Žatec is of national importance but without OUV, and should not be WHS.