Usti nad Labem is a city of the Czech
Republic, in the Usti nad Labem Region. The city is the 7th-most
populous in the country. Usti is situated in a mountainous
district at the confluence of the Bilina and the Elbe (Labe)
Rivers, and, besides being an active river port, is an important
railway junction. It is the birthplace of the painter Anton
Raphael Mengs. Usti nad Labem was mentioned as a trading centre
as early as 993. The city was founded by King Otakar II of
Bohemia in the latter part of the 13th century. In 1423 it was
pledged by Emperor Sigismund to Elector Frederick I of Mei?en,
who occupied it with a Saxon garrison. In 1426 it was besieged
by the Hussites, who on June 16, 1426, though only 25,000
strong, defeated with great slaughter a German army of 70,000
which had been sent to its relief; the town was stormed and
sacked the next day. After lying waste for three years, it was
rebuilt in 1429. It suffered much during the Thirty Years' War
and Seven Years' War. Not far from Usti is the village of
Chlumec, where, on August 29-August 30, 1813, a battle took
place between the French Empire under Vandamme and an allied
army of Austrians, Prussians, and Russians. The French were
defeated and Vandamme surrendered with his army of 10,000 men.
During the 19th century the city became heavily industrialized
and due to the large-scale immigration the number of inhabitants
grew from 2,000 to over 40,000 making Usti one of the biggest
cities in Bohemia. Mining, chemical industry and river transport
were its most important assets. The local river port became the
busiest one in the whole Austro-Hungarian Empire surpassing the
seaport in Trieste. Nowadays it is the industrial city with
chemical establishments, metallurgy manufacture, machinetool
industries, textiles and nutriment industry. Usti was a center
of early German National Socialism. On November 15, 1903, the
Deutsche Arbeiterpartei in Osterreich ("German Workers' Party in
Austria") was formed; it would become the basis for the Sudeten
German National Socialist Party and Austrian National Socialism.
Much of their literature and books were printed in Usti. From
April 17 to April 19, 1945 the city was bombed by the Allied
Forces and over 500 people lost their lives. On July 31, 1945,
the Usti Massacre against German civilians occurred. In 1945 and
1946, over 53,000 ethnic Germans were expelled from the area.
Emigrants from the Soviet Union, Slovakia, and Romania settled
in the city, among them many Roma and Sinti. During the
1970s-1980s large numbers of panelaks were constructed in Usti.
After the fall of communism in Czechoslovakia in the Velvet
Revolution of 1989, the city's heavy industry suffered economic
troubles. The Strekov castle is located in a southern suburb of
the city. Usti is a center for tourism owing to the romantic
landscape of the Bohemian Highlands (Ceske stredohori) and the
Ceske Svycarsko national park. |