Cheb

Cheb is a town of about 33,000 people in the Karlovy Vary Region of the Czech Republic, on the Ohře River close to the German border. Its German name is Eger, and until the expulsion of Germans in 1945 it was the centre of the German-speaking region known as Egerland. The name comes from an Old Czech word for a bend, which fits the river's loops here. The town stands in the Cheb Basin, with the Fichtel Mountains to the north and west, and it has two large reservoirs, Skalka and Jesenice, in its territory. Its well preserved historic centre is protected as an urban monument reservation, and the most important monument is Cheb Castle, founded around 1125 and the only Kaiserpfalz in the Czech Republic. The first written mention of the town dates from 1061, and it became a permanent part of the Lands of the Bohemian Crown in 1322. Today it is an important railway junction with an economy built on services, tourism and a large Vietnamese trading community.