I gave the second chance to Žatec and the landscape of Saaz hops in July 2021. After deferral in 2018, the state party of Czechia submitted the new nomination file to be evaluated in 2022. The Žatec historical core with the Prague suburb was kept, but the cultural landscape with hops fields around villages Stekník and Trnovany has been added following the advice of ICOMOS. Though the new nomination is still problematic (bad shape of hops-related buildings, which lost their original function and their original owners have been repelled after WWII), it is better than the previous one, as its potential OUV might be expressed. Anyway, I expect inscription in 2022.

This time I omitted Žatec and went to the hops field component (now assigned as the component No.1), the focal point of which is Stekník hops village with small baroque chateau. The logistic is a bit complicated because of almost no public transport to Stekník. Thus, I decided to go by fast train from Praha to Most (every two hours, direction to Karlovy Vary and Cheb), then changed to local train from Most to Žatec (every one/two hours), getting off in the Dolejší Hůrky train stop. Then walking through the villages Hradiště, Stekník, Trnovany, Zálužice, Rybňany, and Tvršice (train stop for returning to Most and Prague). It was a good decision, because I could see everything important of this component, and all the above-mentioned villages are within the core or the buffer zone. On the other hand, the area is very non-touristy and this tour is not for everyone. It means jumping over puddles and mud, attacks of barking dogs (fortunately behind the fence), most of the hops-connected buildings not accessible and in desolated state, and NO pub with at least any beer.

Stekník village is located on a small hill surrounded by hop fields (PHOTO-top). There are some restoration works on the houses, but no building is accessible, there is no pub or restaurant, and the flair of the place is damaged by parking cars. The most interesting farm belongs to the hops research institute, and it may be open for public time to time. Stekník is quite popular for local tourists because of the chateau. Even if I did a mistake and went for the guided tour to the interiors, it was still bearable as the castle is rather small and the tour quite short. However, it is enough to visit only the terrace garden with views to the hops field around (fee for the terrace garden 50 CZK). Then I walked along the road through the hops fields to Trnovany village. Trnovany, though the core zone, is purely non-touristy, and there are two hops-drying kilns mentioned in the nomination. The four-chamber kiln (PHOTO-bottom left) looks quite interesting, but it is inaccessible. The second one, built in Neo-gothic style, which is praised in the nomination as the most beautiful hops kiln, is in desolated state, it is located close to the motorway estacade, surrounded by private properties, and almost inaccessible as well. Then I left the core zone and continued through the hops villages Zálužice, Rybňany and Tvršice (all within the buffer zone) to the train stop. I spotted several hops-related farms and kilns, which are quite easily to recognize. Most of them are sadly abandoned and in a bad shape. The most interesting is the round kiln in Rybňany (PHOTO-bottom right), which represents so-called English style of hops drying.

Hops fields are visually interesting as well as the hops-drying kilns. The problem is that once rich region is waiting for restoration and "new life" after expelling of German inhabitants after WWII. It is still not prepared for possible tourists. Nevertheless, it will be probably inscribed in 2022, because it was stated in the ICOMOS evaluation that the place has potential, and the state party followed all the requirements. I cannot imagine that ICOMOS will change mind and turn to the reject statement in 2022.

Even if the new nomination is better and more logical than the original one and I enjoyed my visit to the landscape of Saaz hops, I am still not sure about the OUV of the place. The point is if the OUV has the strict values 0 or 1, or if we can say that a site has the OUV only in part, let´s say in 20%. However, I am thinking that with the OUV it is like with a pregnancy... and it is not a good idea to inscribe new sites with the corrupted OUV but in line with rather formal requirements every year. Recently, Nan proposed an appealing idea for shrinking the list and removing the sites without pristine OUV.