Ghost towns of Czechia: how coal and reservoirs wiped Most, Doupov and Přísečnice off the map

Czechia has towns that officially ceased to exist — demolished for brown coal mining or flooded to make way for reservoirs. The most famous examples are Most, Přísečnice and Doupov, whose stories rival the drama of legendary vanished cities like Pompeii or Troy.

The town of Most emerged at the turn of the 12th and 13th centuries beneath Hněvín Castle, along an important route from Prague to Freiberg in Saxony — it got its name (meaning "bridge") from the network of wooden bridges spanning the marshes of Komořany Lake. But in March 1964, the government decided to liquidate the town as coal mining advanced: beneath old Most lay 100 million tonnes of brown coal. Census data show the town had 47,199 residents in 1961; ten years later, just over eight thousand; ten years after that, five thousand; and by 1991, the population of the old town had dropped to zero. Demolition began in 1967, and the last houses were torn down two decades later. Filmmakers made frequent use of the crumbling town — it appears in several war films, but the most iconic shot remains a giant coal excavator rolling across the former Hus Square. All that survived of old Most is the late-Gothic Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, which was relocated roughly a kilometre from its original site. Today, where the town once stood, the waters of Lake Most now ripple, while the new town of Most is home to around 64,000 people.

Přísečnice, a mining town in the Krušné hory (Ore Mountains) that also arose around the turn of the 12th–13th centuries, was known for its charming square with a castle and town hall, a cinema, a public bathhouse and excellent ski trails. It typically had three to four thousand residents, though after the postwar expulsion of the German population that number dropped to about a third. The town's fate was sealed by the construction of a reservoir in the early 1970s: gradual demolition and the flooding of the area erased it from the map. Before the flooding, all works of art were documented, the remains of the deceased were reburied at a forest cemetery in Vejprty, and some gravestones were transferred to the Chomutov museum. The Marian column from Přísečnice now stands in Klášterec nad Ohří, while a 1735 statue of the Virgin Mary of Svatá Hora seems to still watch over the town — it can be seen at a crossroads on the southern edge of the reservoir, not far from its original location.

Doupov, in the Doupovské hory, disappeared for a different reason — the creation of the Hradiště military training area. Of the small town, owned since 1858 by the Cedtvitz (Czedtwitz) family, who turned a once-unprofitable estate into a thriving community, all that remains today is the remnant of a linden alley, the steps of a former monastery chapel, cypress trees in the old cemetery, a warehouse where the train station once stood, and the neo-Gothic Cedtvitz family crypt. In independent Czechoslovakia before World War II, Doupov had a grammar school, two hotels, two wine bars, six taverns, five confectioneries, a lemonade factory, a steam sawmill and four mills — yet the town retained an almost medieval character to the end, without even running water. After the expulsion of the German population from the Sudetenland, the number of residents fell from nearly two thousand to a third of that, and new settlers had little interest in moving in. The final blow came with the establishment of the military training ground: in 1954, the 800-year-old town was officially abolished, and its territory remains off-limits to visitors to this day — with no hiking or cycling routes allowed.

Karviná is a separate case — it didn't disappear entirely, but changed beyond recognition. In the early 20th century it was a bustling town with Solca Castle, a splendid town hall, two churches, a brewery, schools, hotels and a swimming pool. Ground subsidence caused by coal mining destroyed almost all of old Karviná, and the present-day town emerged after World War II from the merger of several settlements, somewhat to the north and east of its original location.

Read also: 8 best swimming spots near Prague: lakes, quarries and beaches within an hour's drive of the capital

Around Prague, based on reporting by kudyznudy.cz