Chodov Audioguides

Chodov sits in western Bohemia's Sokolov District, a town that has changed hands and identities several times over. It became a proper town in 1894 when it earned the right to its own coat of arms. A generation later, its German-speaking residents departed after 1945, replaced by Czech and Slovak workers drawn to the chemical industry that grew up around nearby Vresova in the 1960s. The housing estates from that era still cluster alongside the older town center.

The Church of Saint Lawrence, built between 1725 and 1733 by Johann Wolfgang Braunbock, still dominates the center, and a Baroque statue of Saint Sebastian from 1673 stands at the entrance as evidence of how far back the story here actually goes.

SKF Lubrication Systems now operates the town's largest employer, manufacturing precision industrial equipment. It is an honest, practical place with a saint out front and a factory humming somewhere in the background.