Chodov (Sokolov District)

Chodov (; ) is a town in the Sokolov District of the Czech Republic, on the border with the Karlovy Vary District (both districts lie within the Karlovy Vary Region). It has approximately 13,500 inhabitants.
History.
It was originally a Slavic settlement. Its name was derived 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 Chodau belongs to the monastery in Waldsassen and in the 14th–17th century is ruled locally from Loket (Elbogen). In 1894 Chodau 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 deported 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 St. Lawrence Church, built by the constructor Brauenbock according to the plans of the architect Kilian Ignaz Dientzenhofer. On the main altar 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: