The wine capital of Bohemia — terraced vineyards above the Elbe
Litoměřice is a beautifully preserved Baroque town on the Elbe at the gateway to Bohemian wine country, with one of the most intact historic town squares in the Czech Republic and a position at the confluence of the Elbe and Ohře rivers that has made it strategically important since the Middle Ages. The surrounding hillsides carry some of the northernmost quality wine vineyards in Central Europe — Bohemian wine has been produced here since the 9th century — and the town itself has a remarkable concentration of Baroque churches, Renaissance burghers' houses, and a Bishop's Cathedral that once…
Litoměřice was settled in the 9th century and became one of the most important towns in Bohemia during the medieval period, serving as a royal seat and Episcopal see. The town was heavily damaged during the Thirty Years' War (1618–48) and was largely rebuilt in Baroque style afterwards — giving it the coherent architectural character it retains today. The Terezín (Theresienstadt) concentration camp and ghetto is just 4 kilometres away: it served as a Nazi 'model camp' shown to Red Cross inspectors while 35,000 people died there, and 155,000 Jews passed through en route to Auschwitz.