Kraslice
Encyclopedia
Kraslice (ˈkraslɪtsɛ; ) is a town in the Karlovy Vary Region of the Czech Republic
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....

.

Geography

The town is situated on the southern slopes of the eastern reaches of the Ore Mountains, some 5 km from the neighbouring German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 town of Klingenthal
Klingenthal
Klingenthal is a town in the Vogtlandkreis district, in the Free State of Saxony, south-eastern Germany. It is situated directly on the border with the Czech Republic opposite the Czech town of Kraslice, 29 km southeast of Plauen, and 33 km northwest of Karlovy Vary.The Aschberg towers above the...

.

The city lies on railway line No 145 from Sokolov
Sokolov
-Fictional characters:*Nikolai Stephanovich Sokolov from Metal Gear Solid 3*Sokolov, a former Russian Spetsnaz in Neal Stephenson's novel REAMDE-Places:...

 to Klingenthal
Klingenthal
Klingenthal is a town in the Vogtlandkreis district, in the Free State of Saxony, south-eastern Germany. It is situated directly on the border with the Czech Republic opposite the Czech town of Kraslice, 29 km southeast of Plauen, and 33 km northwest of Karlovy Vary.The Aschberg towers above the...

. Passenger services are provided by the railway company of Viamont.

History

German monks from Waldsassen Abbey
Waldsassen Abbey
Waldsassen Abbey is a Cistercian nunnery, formerly a Cistercian monastery, located on the River Wondreb at Waldsassen near Tirschenreuth, Oberpfalz in Bavaria, Germany, close to the border with the Czech Republic.- First foundation :...

 in Bavaria
Bavaria
Bavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...

 were the first to settle the upper Svatava
Svatava
The Svatava is a left tributary of the Ohře in Germany and the Czech Republic.-Source:...

 valley in the 12th century. The town was granted regal city status by Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV
Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor
Charles IV , born Wenceslaus , was the second king of Bohemia from the House of Luxembourg, and the first king of Bohemia to also become Holy Roman Emperor....

 in 1370. In 1944 a women's subcamp of Flossenbürg concentration camp
Flossenbürg concentration camp
Konzentrationslager Flossenbürg was a Nazi concentration camp built in May 1938 by the Schutzstaffel Economic-Administrative Main Office at Flossenbürg, in the Oberpfalz region of Bavaria, Germany, near the border with Czechoslovakia. Until its liberation in April 1945, more than 96,000 prisoners...

 was established here.

Etymology

The roots of the name derive from the medieval German "Graz", meaning pine forest. Many variants were used throughout the town's history: Greselin, Zum Greselin, Gresslens, Gresslas, Gresslitz, Graeslitz and Graslitz. The Czech
Czech language
Czech is a West Slavic language with about 12 million native speakers; it is the majority language in the Czech Republic and spoken by Czechs worldwide. The language was known as Bohemian in English until the late 19th century...

 name is a transliteration of the last used German name.

Population

Graslitz had 13.936 inhabitants on December 1, 1930, 6.294 inhabitants May 22, 1947 and currently
has some 7,000 inhabitants – a significant decrease from the pre-World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 population figure of around 20,000, due to the expulsion
Population transfer
Population transfer is the movement of a large group of people from one region to another by state policy or international authority, most frequently on the basis of ethnicity or religion...

of the German-speaking population after that war.
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