User:Szkott/draft1

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Statistics
Area:	xx.x km²
Population:	xx,xx (2003)
Map

Štoky (German: Stecken) 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 in the Bohemian-Moravian Highlands and has a population of x,xxx as of xxxx.

[edit] History

Settlement in Štoky 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; Štoky received its city rights in 1257. Although the townspeople were German-speakers in a predominantly Czech-speaking land, the people of Štoky 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, Štoky 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. Because many townspeople supported Nazi Germany's occupation of Czechoslovakia during World War II, the town's German population was expelled in 1945.

[edit] Names

The Czech word Štoky means "tree trunks;logs" in English. The town was originally founded by xxx. Because of its predominantly German population, the town was renamed in 1310 to Německý Brod in Czech and Stecken in German (both meaning tree trunks;logs).