Mladá Boleslav (German: Jungbunzlau; in Yiddish בומסלא Bumsla) is
a statutory town in the Central Bohemian Region. It lies on the left
bank of the middle course of the Jizera, at the confluence with the
river Klenica about 50 km northeast of Prague, which is connected by
the D10 motorway. It has approximately 45,000 inhabitants and is
structurally integrated with the neighboring small town of
Kosmonosy. The Škoda Auto car company is based in the city.
Establishment
A bronze fortified settlement of the people of the
Lusatian culture stood on the site of the town at a younger time,
and a moat in the area of the Old Town Square was documented from
its fortifications. At the turn of the tenth and eleventh centuries,
the Přemyslid fort was built on the same site, which became one of
the main centers of the castle system. Its probable founder was
Prince Boleslav II. The main intention was probably to build an
administrative center for the newly acquired territories. At this
time, a settlement began to emerge under the castle on the banks of
the Jizera. In the middle of the 13th century, at the end of the
watchtower, a high medieval royal castle was built, but the rest of
the fort and the castle grounds were devastated.
Michalovice
government
After the extinction of the royal branch of the
Přemyslids by the sword in 1306, the town became the property of the
Michalovics. On October 24, 1334, Ješek of Michalovice issued a
document in which he had Mladá Boleslav transferred to the castle
neighborhood and provided it with many city rights. During the 14th
century, most buildings (mostly wooden) were concentrated around a
triangular square. During the Hussite wars, the city was repeatedly
ravaged, all monasteries were destroyed.
Krajířové z Krajku
In 1468, the town came into the possession of the Tovačovskýs from
Cimburk. Jan Tovačovský immediately confirmed all previous rights
that Mladá Boleslav had. When he married Johanka Krajířová of
Krajek, a devoted supporter of the Unity of Brethren, he inclined to
this faith. After the extinction of the Tovačov family in 1502, the
town passed into the possession of the Krajířs of Krajek. At the end
of the 15th century, the Czech brothers acquired a derelict Minorite
monastery, where they set up their prayer house. In 1518, Mikuláš
Klaudyán founded a printing house here. Thanks to the significant
support of the Krajířs of Krajek, Mladá Boleslav became the center
of the Unity of Brethren and became known as Fraternal Rome. In
1554, a large church was opened, built by Matteo Borgorelli. The
work of this Italian architect also includes the magnificent
Renaissance town hall built between 1554 and 1559. He also
participated in the reconstruction of the castle. The Kalisz Church
(today's Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary) dates from the
16th century and was completed in 1566. In the 16th century the town
also underwent economic growth - in 1528 the town was expanded by a
suburb called Nové město vineyards and saffrons, a water supply
system was built.
The Thirty Years' War and the development
of industry
On July 3, 1600, Emperor Rudolf II. promoted Mladá
Boleslav to a royal city. Soon, however, there was a decline for
Mladá Boleslav. The reason was the Thirty Years' War, during which
troops roamed the town, which largely ravaged the Mladá Boleslav
buildings. The worst impact was the suburbs, which were not
protected by walls, but in 1648 the Mladá Boleslav castle was
demolished.
The boom was restarted with the development of
the industry. In the 18th and especially the 19th century, many
factories were established in Mladá Boleslav, most of which were
concentrated on the banks of the Jizera River. Among the established
factories was, for example, a distillery, a brewery, a textile
factory or a sugar factory. An important milestone for the city was
also the introduction of the railway, the first railway line arrived
in Mladá Boleslav in 1865. At the beginning of the 20th century, new
neighborhoods quickly emerged and the city expanded significantly
beyond its original development, which ended in the north
approximately Dukelská street. In 1895, the bicycle factory "Slavia"
was founded, which soon became a motorcycle factory and then in 1905
the carmaker Laurin & Klement, today's Škoda Auto. The architect
František Janda created the urban concept of a modern industrial
city with his regulatory plan.
After the establishment of
Czechoslovakia, the town was to become the seat of the Mladá
Boleslav county, but in the end the county establishment was not
implemented. In 1927, the Border Exhibition of the Czech North took
place in the town. The chairman of the Czech schools, Josef Maštálek
from Česká Lípa, held the chairmanship, where the first meeting of
the preparatory committee took place in 1926. The exhibition was the
impetus for the establishment of a number of associations in
northern Bohemia. At that time, the city museum was already
operating in Mladá Boleslav.