City of Aš

Mecca of the textile industry

Aš (německy Asch) je město v okrese Cheb v Karlovarském kraji, 20 km severozápadně od Chebu, v Ašském výběžku. Je obklopeno ze dvou stran Německem (Bavorskem a Saskem) . Žije zde přibližně 13 tisíc obyvatel. Sousedními obcemi sídla jsou Podhradí, Krásná, Hranice, Hazlov, Bad Brambach, Bad Elster, Rehau a Selb.  

Aš on a period postcard from 1900

The textile industry grew rapidly in the region, and by the end of the 18th century Aš had become an industrial center. In 1814, a great fire broke out in Aš, which affected both hills along the main road; Mikulášský and Radniční. The fire destroyed the entire Zedtwitz castle seat, the historic town hall, and took with it 167 houses, and another 80 buildings between these hills. In 1834, the first Jacquard loom was manufactured in Aš. At that time, over 6,000 weavers lived in Aš. Thirty years later, in 1864, the first mechanical weaving mill in Austria was established in Aš. In 1880, Aš, with its thirteen thousand inhabitants, became the tenth largest Czech city. On August 2, 1872, Aš was legally elevated from a township to a city.Although Aš is one of the older cities, not many historical monuments have been preserved here. The most valuable monument was the Evangelical Church of the Holy Trinity, which was destroyed in a fire in 1960. A little later, in the 1970s, almost all the historic houses on the main, Goethe Square, including the so-called Aš block, were torn down. Their places were mostly filled with panel construction. But it is definitely worth a visit. In addition to one of the most beautiful stone lookout towers, there is the only monument to Martin Luther in our territory, two museum buildings (history of the textile industry and ethnography), a beautiful fountain with a statue of Goethe, a cemetery bridge and much more.Aš is located in Smrčiny. It extends under the Háj hill in the Ašská vrchovina area, at an altitude of about 650 meters above sea level. Aš is a green city, surrounded by forests and with many parks. The Municipal Gardens are classified as a significant landscape element. The northern outskirts of the city are crossed by the Ašský stream, which flows into the Bílý Halštrov near Podhradí. The Račí stream (Selbbach) also originates in Aš, which flows further into Germany. Aš forms a single entity with its local part Mokřiny and the municipality of Krásná. The state border with Germany runs along the western side of the city. The Aš-Selb border crossing is also located here.