Havlíčkův Brod

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Statistics
Area:	64.9 km²
Population:	24,321 (2003)
Map

Havlíčkův Brod (formerly Czech: Německý Brod, German: Deutschbrod) is a town in the Vysočina Region of the Czech Republic. It is also the capital of the district (okres) Havlíčkův Brod. It is located on the Sázava River in the Bohemian-Moravian Highlands and has a population of 24,321 as of 2003.

1 History
2 Names
3 Sister cities
4 External link

[edit] History

Settlement in Brod has been documented as far back as the 12th century. After silver was discovered in the area, the Bohemian nobleman Smil of Lichtenburk (Lichtenburg) invited German miners to settle the area; Brod received its city rights in 1257. Although the townspeople were German-speakers in a predominantly Czech-speaking land, the people of Brod became loyal subjects of the Bohemian crown. In the 13th and 14th centuries it was a center for silver mining, although its importance gradually declined in the latter century. Because the German townspeople supported King Sigismind during the Hussite Wars, Brod was sacked on January 22, 1422 by Jan Žižka. The town was resettled in 1429 and experienced a cultural flowering during the 16th and 17th centuries. Brod was industrialized during the 19th century with an emphasis on textiles, and became an important railway junction. Because many townspeople supported Nazi Germany's occupation of Czechoslovakia during World War II, the town's German population was expelled in 1945 and it received the name Havlíčkův Brod. In the late 1980s Brod's center was declared a national treasure.

[edit] Names

The Czech word Brod means "ford" in English. Because the town was originally founded by Smil of Lichtenburk, Brod's original name was Smilův Brod (Ford of Smil or Smilford). Because of its predominantly German population, the town was renamed in 1310 to Německý Brod in Czech and Deutschbrod in German (both meaning German Ford). After the expulsion of the Germans in 1945, the town was officially renamed Havlíčkův Brod (Ford of Havlíček) in honor of the 19th century writer Karel Havlíček Borovský.