Chodov (Sokolov District)

Chodov (; ) is a town in Sokolov District in the Karlovy Vary Region of the Czech Republic. It has a population of about 13,000 people.
History.
Chodov was originally a Slavic settlement. Its name comes from an old Slavic term "choda", which means a road. The Slavic colonisation was not successful and in the Middle Ages this part of Bohemia was colonised by Germans. In the 12th–13th century Chodov belongs to the monastery in Waldsassen and in the 14th–17th century is ruled locally from Loket. In 1894 Chodov is declared a town and gets the right to use its own coat of arms.
From 1938 to 1945 it was one of the municipalities in Sudetenland. Until the end of World War II the town was inhabited practically only by Germans, who were exiled from Czechoslovakia after the war. In the '60s a big chemical factory was built 4 km from Chodov in Vřesová and then new districts were built for the Czech and Slovak workers who moved here.
Sights.
The most significant is Church of St. Lawrence, built by the constructor Brauenbock according to the plans of the architect Kilian Ignaz Dientzenhofer. On the main shrine there is a painting by the famous Czech-German artist Peter Johann Brandl. In front of the church we find a 17th-century statue of St. Sebastian and on the main square a statue of the Virgin Mary (1675). The other church in the town belongs to the Protestants, Czech Brethren. Close to the gate of the Protestant church there is a monument to war victims. It was re-erected in 1998 exactly 100 years after its first erection.
Twin towns – sister cities.
Chodov is twinned with: