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. |