Louny

A royal town on the Ohře below the southern edge of the České středohoří, with preserved walls, the Žatec Gate and Benedikt Rejt's late-Gothic church of St Nicholas.

Louny was founded by the Přemyslid kings in the mid-13th century where the Prague road crossed the Ohře. The old town still reads as a medieval plan: ramparts ring two thirds of the centre, with the Žatec Gate and bastions preserved on the western side. Above the roofs rises the town’s landmark, the church of St Nicholas — rebuilt after a fire in 1517 by the workshop of royal architect Benedikt Rejt and finished in 1538, one of the peak works of Czech late Gothic, with a distinctive threefold tented roof.

The town sits below the bare southern hills of the České středohoří (Oblík, Raná and their neighbours), which makes it a natural start or finish for walks in the steppe part of the range, with rail connections along the Ohře valley.