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Havlíčkův Brod

In the Czech Republic we can find only a few towns that bear the name of their famous native, but Havlíčkův Brod is one of these handful. We are talking about Havlíčkův Brod, a district town in the Vysočina region, which was named after the journalist, writer and poet Karel Havlíček Borovský in 1949.

Information for visitors

Adress: Havlíčkovo náměstí, Havlíčkův Brod
GPS: 49.60723310, 15.57980000
Havlíčkův Brod map

Interesting facts Havlíčkův Brod

History of the town

At the beginning of the 13th century, a mining settlement stood on the site of Havlíčkův Brod, founded by Smil of Lichtenburg. He was the administrator of the royal silver mines and the settlement was named after him Smilův Brod.

In 1274, this settlement was Přemysl Otakar II. elevated to the city and surrounded by walls. Because the town was dominated by a German population, it was renamed Německý Brod in 1308. The town was known under this name until 1945, when at the end of the Second World War it was renamed Havlíčkův Brod.

In the 15th century, the town was destroyed by the Hussites, and from the middle of the 15th century it was owned by Mikuláš Trčka of Lípa, followed by František of Thurn. In 1637, the German Ford became a royal city.

Brod began to strengthen his position only after the Thirty Years' War, when it became a city of education in connection with the arrival of the Augustinians, who founded a monastery here in 1674, during which the first Latin grammar school in the then region was opened in 1735.

In the 18th century, the imperial road leading to Vienna was stretched through Brod, in the middle of the 19th century the railway was introduced here and Německý Brod became an important railway junction. On May 5, 1945, it was renamed Havlíčkův Brod, and since 1990 the city center has been a monument zone.

Sights and interesting places

The most visited part of Havlíčkův Brod is undoubtedly the historical center with a square, which is dominated by a fountain with a statue of Triton and a Baroque plague column. The square has a rectangular shape, delimited by Renaissance and Baroque houses, the most important of which is Malin's house, on which Gothic elements have been preserved. Directly on the square is also the Renaissance building of the Old Town Hall.

Of the church monuments, the Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, originally Gothic, now rebuilt in the Baroque style, is worth a visit.