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Cheb
This town in the heart of Europe can pride itself upon its rich history
dating back as early as the 9th century. One of the most beautiful Central
European Romanesque monuments is the Cheb Castle, guarded by the Black
Tower. Behind the stone fortification of the castle the precious two-storyed
Romanesque-Gothic Chapel is hidden. „Špalíček“ - a group of eleven medieval
houses in the lower part of the main square which dates back to the 13th
century is an important symbol of the town. Špalíček, together with other
well preserved burgher houses
create a unique atmospherein the square of Cheb. Behind the grey stone
and colourful facades many important historic events took place. Although
the
bloody assassination of the political and military adventurer, Duke Albrecht
of Wallenstein, is the best known event in the history of the town, the
room in the present museum where it took place is not the only interesting
site of Cheb. The town is also the birthplace of Balthasar Neumann, the
famous architect of the Würzburg Cathedral, it is the place where Johann
Wolfgang Goethe used to meet his friends and Friedrich Schiller collected
his material for his Wallenstein tragedy. Here significant baroque ecclesiastical
and secular buildings were built by disinguished architects Christoph
Dienzenhofer, A. Leutner, G. B. Alliprandi, P. Bayer and A. Pfeffer.
Today Cheb lives as a lively commercial and tourist centre. Musical
and theatrical performances are also an important part of Cheb's contemporary
life. Two of the most important are the Youth Brass Orchestras Festival
„FIJO“ and the Jazz Jam Festival. Also the newly established cycle of
beatiful organ concerts, known under the name of „The Cheb Organ Summer“
has recently become popular, in summer the Cheb Castle comes back to life
with theatre performances. In the beautiful exhibition rooms of the Gallery
of Fine Arts many art and history lovers can lose their concept of time
and this is far from all that Cheb can offer. Every year the Wallenstein's festivities take place in Cheb.
We recommend to see
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