Žatec Hop Region is the main hop-growing region of the Czech Republic. It is centered on the town of Žatec near the western border of the country. This is also the origin of what may be the world’s most prestigious hop, Saaz. See czech republic and saaz hop. There are two other hop-producing regions in the Czech Republic, Trschitz and Auscha, both of which also grow Saaz (also known as Saazer); however, combined they are less than half the size of Žatec. Hop cultivation in Žatec probably goes back 1,000 years, but it did not become a center of world production until the 15th and 16th centuries, when many of the area’s small hop centers were granted the right to use a “hop seal” to guard against fraud and forgeries in the trade. See hop seal. These seals evolved into the Žatec seal that is still in use today. Before World War II, hop farming was a business consisting of many small, family-owned farms, similar to those in Germany. See hallertau hop region. After the war, however, the communist Czechoslovak regime confiscated all private farms and merged them into very large collective farms the size of present-day American hop farms (about 200 ha/500 acres). With the return of private enterprise, however, these farms were broken up again, but not into the mosaic of small plots that existed in days past. Hop research activity in the region dates as far back as 1925, and a state-sponsored Hop Research Institute was founded in 1950. After the fall of communism, this became the Hop Research Institute Co Ltd. The institute researches and promotes agricultural practices, breeds new hop varieties, and has become one of the world’s leading hop research centers. See premiant (hop) and sládek (hop).