1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Schlan

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search

SCHLAN (Czech, Slané), a town of Bohemia, 37 m. N.W. of Prague by rail. Pop. (1900) 9491, mostly Czech. The most notable churches are St Gotthard (14th century, remodelled in 1782) St Mary, attached to the Piarist college (1655–1658), the chapel of St Lawrence (13th century) and the church of the Holy Trinity belonging to the Franciscan friary (1655). There are extensive coal-fields and important iron, metal and machine industries, together with the manufacture of chemicals and corn-milling.

Schlan—probably the name of a castle—occurs in documents of the 10th century. The town was probably founded in the 13th century by Ottakar II. In the Hussite wars it took the utraquist side, was occupied in 1420 by King Sigismund, but retaken the next year by the troops of Prague. These were expelled, in 1425, after a desperate resistance by the Taborites and Orphans. The town now remained faithful to the Taborite cause till its collapse in 1434. The place was re-fortified between 1460 and 1472. After the battle of the White Hill (1620), Schlan was granted to Jaroslaus Bořita of Martinic, lord of Smečno, whose descendants still own the lordship.