Chrastava, Liberec Region, Czech Republic

🇨🇿 Chrastava (Kratzau) is a town in Liberec District in the Liberec Region of the Czech Republic.

Administrative parts Chrastava is made up of the town parts of Chrastava, Dolní Chrastava and Horní Chrastava, and the villages of Andělská Hora, Dolní Vítkov, Horní Vítkov, Víska and Vysoká.

Geography Chrastava is located about 8 km (5 mi) north-west of Liberec. On the north, the municipal territory borders Germany. It lies mostly in the Zittau Basin, but it also extends into the Jizera Mountains on the north and into the Ještěd–Kozákov Ridge on the south. The highest point is the hill Dlouhá hora at 748 m (2,454 ft) above sea level. The town is situated at the confluence of the Lusatian Neisse and Jeřice rivers.

History The first written mention of Chrastava is from 1352 as Cratzauia, already referred to as quite big settlement. It was founded probably at the end of the 13th century by German settlers, having been invited by King Ottokar II. They came mainly from the town of Pirna in Saxony and began to mine metals in the vicinity of Chrastava, in particularly copper, tin, lead, iron and silver.

Chrastava, then known mostly by the German name Kratzau, was occupied by the Hussites who use the town as a base for expeditions into Lusatia during the Hussite Wars. In 1433, the local castle and the whole town was conquered and damaged. This caused general decline, departure of population and stagnation of trade, which lasted for several decades.

In the 16th and 17th centuries, ore mining in Chrastava declined, when most of the reserves had already been mined. The population therefore gradually reoriented to the textile industry. The first large textile factory was built in 1815. In 1859, the railway was built.

Chrastava became part of Czechoslovakia after the collapse of Austria-Hungary from World War I. The town was almost entirely ethnic German, however, and was ceded to Nazi Germany and administered as part of the Reichsgau Sudetenland after the Munich Agreement in 1938.

In 1943, during World War II, two forced labor camps were set up in the area by Organization Schmelt. These camps provided workers for the Tannwald Textile Works and an ammunition factory (Deutsche Industriewerke AG) that produced hand grenades and other military material for the armed forces of Germany. The camps became subcamps of Gross-Rosen in October 1944. Female prisoners were transported to Kratzau from Auschwitz, as well as from other Gross-Rosen subcamps that were being evacuated. By then the subcamps included Polish, Czech, French, Belgian, Dutch and Danish women.

As more women arrived from the evacuated Gross-Rosen subcamps, conditions at Kratzau worsened. Joseph Mengele is known to have visited Kratzau three times between October 1944 and March 1945 to conduct a "selection"; after each of these visits the selected women were sent to a subcamp in Zittau.

After the German population was expelled in 1945–1947, Chrastava was resettled mainly by Czechs.

Economy The largest employed with its headquarters in the town is a branch of the Benteler International company, focused on the production of automotive parts. The factory was built in 1999 and employs about 600 people.

Transport The I/35 expressway (part of the European route E442) from Liberec to the Czech-German border passes through the town.

Chrastava is located on the railway line Liberec–Zittau–Varnsdorf.

Sights The main landmark of Chrastava is the Church of Saint Lawrence. It was originally a wooden church from the 14th century. A massive stone tower was added at the end of the 16th century. The church was rebuilt into its current pseudo-Gothic form in 1866–1868. The Baroque rectory next to the church dates from 1739.

The town hall was built in the second half of the 17th century, after the old town hall was destroyed by fires in 1621 and 1642. Its current appearance with Neoclassical elements dates from 1899.

The Church of the Visitation of the Virgin Mary is located in Horní Vítkov. It was built in the Baroque style in 1671.

The Church of Our Lady of the Snows is located in Andělská Hora. Its present Empire form dates from 1833.