The plaque commemorating chemist and brewer Otakar Zachar (1870–1921) is in Točník on the house where he was born which is a former brewery where his father worked. Beside his work in brewing and technical chemistry Zachar contributed significantly to enriching the study of chemistry history and alchemy in particular at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries.

Otakar Zachar was born in 1870 in Točník in the family of a brewer which determined his career. Otakar Zachar`s family did leave Točník only a year after he was born, moving to Beroun and other places depending on where the father`s job took them, but Zachar retained a very deep love for Točník nevertheless. This is where his mother came from and the whole family returned here repeatedly to visit relatives. Zachar himself liked to come back to this region even in later years. He considered it remarkable and was drawn by its rich history and mysterious stories. Zachar focused on the history of chemistry and alchemy in the Bohemian lands already during his Chemistry studies at the Czech Technical University in Prague, where he enrolled in 1888. From 1896 on Zachar would write scientific and popularizing articles about the history of alchemy and chemistry. They were published in the Journal for Chemical Industry, Journal of the Museum of the Kingdom of Bohemia, Voice of the Nation, Světozor (Worldview), Květy and Lumír. These activities of his hadn`t stopped when he took over the family brewery in Kladno-Kročehlavy in 1898. It is also noteworthy that Zachar wrote many books, the most notorious being a treatise on the history of alchemy illustrated by Mikoláš Aleš, On Alchemy and Bohemian Alchemists (1911).

Connected places: Otakar Zachar
Bust of Otakar Zachar in Kladno-KročehlavyBusta Otakara Zachara v Kladně-Kročehlavech

Keywords: alchemy; inorganic chemistry; history of natural sciences; hermetic sciences; organic chemistry; history of alchemy; brewing and technical chemistry

Commemorative Plaque to Otakar Zachar in Točník