Where to Stay in Most, Ústecký kraj

What is Most known for?

On the plain below the Ore Mountains, the whole medieval town was pulled down in the last century to reach the brown coal beneath it, and only its great Gothic church was saved, moved whole on rails to safer ground, while the hill castle of Hněvín still looks down on the new town. The mines ring the plain. Coal and a moved church mark the city.

What are the main landmarks in Most?

The moved church of the Assumption is the wonder of Most. The great Gothic church, shifted almost a kilometre on rails in the last century, stands alone on its new ground, the emblem of the city, apart from the town. A hill castle guards the plain.

Hněvín Castle looks down from its wooded hill over the mines and the new town, while the galleries, the old monastery, and the parks mark the streets of Most.

What is the history of Most?

Most grew up as an old town below its castle. A market town stood here in the middle ages under the hill of Hněvín, on the road between Bohemia and Saxony, and it flourished on trade and later on the coal in the ground. Then the coal decided its fate.

Under the great seams lay the medieval town itself, and in the last century the state chose the coal over the town. So the old Most was pulled down. Street by street the ancient town was demolished to open the mines, its people moved to a new city of concrete blocks nearby, and its old life ended.

One thing was saved from the ruin. The great Gothic church of the Assumption was set on rails and moved almost a kilometre to safe ground, one of the largest buildings ever shifted whole. The old church still stands on its new site.

Most keeps its moved church and its castle by the mines.

Where is Most?

Most lies on a plain in northern Bohemia, below the Ore Mountains near the German border. The city sits in a wide basin of brown coal, ringed by open mines and the wooded ridge of the mountains, on the Bílina river, northwest of Prague. Bare mine country spreads around.

The mountains wall the north.

What is the climate of Most?

The basin below the Ore Mountains gives Most a temperate continental climate. Warm summers and cold, damp winters cross the basin, and the Ore Mountains hold back some of the rain, leaving the plain drier than the hills, with snow in the cold months. Haze hangs over the basin in the still days.

The plain turns green in the spring.

How do you get to Most?

Most lies in northern Bohemia, northwest of Prague near the German border. Trains and roads run to it from Prague and along the foot of the Ore Mountains, and the border crossings to Saxony lie close by. Buses reach the mining towns around.

Many arrive by road from Prague.