Pilsen

Pilsen, the second town of Bohemia, situated in a fertile and beautiful valley, 67 miles by rail SW. of Prague. There are numerous active industries, producing building materials, machinery, metal-work, porcelain, spirits, liqueurs, leather, &c. In the neighbourhood are mines of iron, alum, vitriol, coal, and sulphuric acid. But the town is most widely known from giving its name to the most approved kind of Bohemian beer, which is brewed to the extent of 9 million gallons a year, and (whether made there or elsewhere) is now largely imported into Britain. The town was stormed by Zizka in the Hussite war and by Count Mansfeld in the Thirty Years' War (1618); it was Wallenstein's headquarters in 1633-34. Pop. (1890) 50,221.