Metadata: Archive of the Town of Žatec
Collection
- Country:
- Czechia
- Holding institution:
- State District Archives Louny
- Holding institution (official language):
- Státní okresní archiv Louny
- Postal address:
- Mírové náměstí 57, Louny, 440 01
- Phone number:
- 00420 477 755 892
- Email:
- sokalouny@soalitomerice.cz
- Reference number:
- 179
- Title:
- Archive of the Town of Žatec
- Title (official language):
- Archiv města Žatec
- Creator/accumulator:
- Town of Žatec
- Date(s):
- 1331 /1945
- Language:
- Czech
- German
- Extent:
- 203.32 linear metres
- Physical condition:
- good
- Scope and content:
- The fonds contains documents relating to the official and administrative activities of the town of Zatec. Jewish issues can be found in inv. 341, an alphabetical register of the Jewish population from 1890, and in inv. 432, the land registry of the Zatec synagogue from 1863-70. Zatec’s Jews are also mentioned in other municipal books: council board books, 1652-1936; town council books, 1864-1929; foreigners' applications, 1860-1937; registers of deaths, 1815-1945; registers of land plots, 1884; lists of house owners in Zatec, 1884-85; market books, 1584-1885; books of wills, 1532-1832; evaluation books, 1694-1837; books of debts and repayments, 1614-1862; court books, 1528-1724; and two books of testimonies from 1580-87 and 1603-28. Documents relating to Jews are also found in the town registry. In all registry groups, attention should be paid to domicile right, trade, business and church issues. Box 701 contains documents relating to the Jewish club Maccabi in Zatec from 1933-35.
- Archival history:
- Documents relating to the administration of Zatec were stored at the town hall. In 1960, after the territorial reorganisation and cancellation of the Zatec district archives, the fonds became part of the district archives in Louny. The inventory was created in 1966. After the fonds was moved from Zatec to Louny, a thorough revision of the inventory was carried out and a new inventory was created.
- Administrative/biographical history:
- In the late 12th century, Zatec was already one of the largest towns in Bohemia. It gained importance as an institutional town in the first half of the 13th century. In 1788, it became the centre of the Zatec region and from 1850-1960 it was a district town. A Jewish community existed in Zatec as early as the second half of the 14th century. In the first half of the 16th century, the Jews lived within the inner town in an alley called Jewish trenches. In 1530 Jews who were not residents of the town were expelled, and in 1541 there was a pogrom with casualties. Around 1547, the last Jews had to leave the town and were only allowed to enter again in 1584. In 1624, the king authorised the settlement of one family, but in 1637 the decree of expulsion was renewed and all Jews had to leave the town. Only in the mid-18th century were individual Jewish families allowed to stay temporarily in Zatec. In 1855 a prayer association was established as part of the Jewish religious community based in the nearby village of Libočany, from where the seat of the community was transferred to Zatec in 1864. In the mid-19th century, commerce and industry brought an influx of Jewish families from the surrounding rural areas. The large religious community, abolished by the Nazis, was restored in 1945, and in 1954 was transformed into a synagogue congregation functioning within the Jewish religious community in Usti nad Labem until 1980. The Jewish synagogue was built in 1871-73. It was burned down on Kristallnacht, November 9 1938.
- Access points: locations:
- Zatec
- System of arrangement:
- The fonds is arranged as follows: I. Deeds, II. Official books, III. Registry office. The official books are arranged by content into subject matter classes. The town registry office files include filing records and documents, being divided into seven departments (1543-1850, 1791-1850, 1850-1857, 1858-1866, 1867-1894, 1895-1904, 1904-1939). Documents in the departments are arranged according to different file plans, and in the department from 1895-1904 they are arranged chronologically. A catalogue is only created for building files from the last department (1904-1939).
- Finding aids:
- Beran, J., Lůžek, B., Archiv města Žatec, Inventář, 1970, 275 s., ev. č. 24
- Yerusha Network member:
- Jewish Museum Prague
- Author of the description:
- JMP Survey, 2015.
