Nalžovské Hory


Nalžovské Hory is a town of Klatovy District within the Plzeň Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 1,200 inhabitants. The municipality was established in 1951 by the merger of Stříbrné Hory with Nalžovy.

Geography

Nalžovské Hory is situated in southwestern Bohemia, in the foothills of the Bohemian Forest, approximately east of Klatovy, south of the regional capital Plzeň, and south-west of Prague.
The town covers an area of, and has a population of around 1,200. It comprises the districts of Krutěnice, Letovy, Miřenice, Nalžovy, Neprochovy, Otěšín, Sedlečko, Stříbrné Hory, Těchonice, Ústaleč, Velenovy, Zahrádka, and Žďár.

History

Nalžov in the Kingdom of Bohemia was first mentioned in a 1379 deed, then a possession of the Lords of Paběnice. After King Vladislaus II had granted miming privileges, the neighbouring settlement of Silberberg was established by German miners in 1521 and elevated to a separate royal mining community in 1530.
The mines were depleted in the late 17th century and abandoned. In 1769 the Ellischau estates were acquired by Nicholas Taaffe, 6th Viscount Taaffe, chamberlain to Empress Maria Theresa, from the compensation he had received for his seized Irish possessions. The Viscounts Taaffe had an artificial ruin resembling their former Irish family home, Ballymote Castle, built in the nearby Prašivice Forest about 1840.
Incorporated into the Austrian Empire in 1804, Ellischau and Silberberg from 1850 formed two separate municipalities within the district of Klattau. Silberberg was raised to the status of a town in 1853.
Part of the First Czechoslovak Republic from 1918, Richard Taaffe finally sold Ellischau Castle in 1936. The municipality of Nalžovské Hory regained town privileges in 2007.

Notable people