Pelhřimov (popularly "Pejr", German Pilgrams) is a town in the
western part of the Vysočina region. It is located in the valley of
the Bělá river in the Křemešnická vrchovina (part of the
Bohemian-Moravian Highlands). It is located 27 km west of Jihlava,
74 km northeast of České Budějovice and 93 km southeast of Prague.
Approximately 16,000 people live here.
The center of the
historic city is Masaryk Square with the Church of St. Bartholomew
and the town hall. The town is a traffic junction of two 1st class
roads and a tourist starting point to the Bohemian-Moravian
Highlands. The agglomeration is the center of a large potato growing
area. Pelhřimov is known as a city of records and curiosities (see
the smallest equestrian statue of T. G. Masaryk in the world
directly above the arcade of Masaryk Square and the competition
taking place every year on this market square).
The original settlement from the 13th century was
probably built on the site of today's Starý Pelhřimov. Later, the
name was transferred to the settlement around the church of St. Vít
and Hrnčířská Street, which was plundered by Vítek of Hluboká in
1289.
In 1290 King Wenceslas II. granted the right to Bishop
Tobias of Bechyně to re-establish the city and fortify it with
walls. The floor plan of the town suggests that it is a colonization
work, mostly inhabited by German settlers. Over the years, the
population began to be honored. Economic development, otherwise
limited by the great distance from trade routes, was favorably
affected by silver mining in the vicinity of Vyskytná and Křemešník,
9 km southeast of the town. In the pre-Hussite period, the city was
the market center of its surroundings and a number of crafts were
developed here, such as cloth, linen, weaving, gingerbread and
brewing. Until 1416, Pelhřimov was in the possession of the Prague
archbishops - from them it acquired a number of rights, especially
the great privilege of Archbishop Zbyněk Zajíc of Hazmburk from
1406, which regulated the relationship between the city and the
nobility.
During the Hussite wars, Pelhřimov was on the side
of the camps, to whom he gave, among other things, the spiritual
leader Mikuláš, Bishop of Pelhřimov. During the Hussite revolution,
the town was probably administered by the governors of Tábor in
1422. After the Battle of Lipany, the town passed into the
possession of Mikuláš Trčka of Lípa, on whose initiative in the
1840s there were 4 provincial congresses, convened for settlement
between Catholics and the Similar Party. As the place of the
congresses, in which the later Czech King George of Poděbrady also
took part, tradition is determined by the house No. 80 on the
square.
In 1550, the Říčany family from Říčany became the new
lordship, with whom the town had long-standing disputes, which
resulted in redemption from servitude in 1572. In 1596, Pelhřimov
was promoted to a royal town. The quiet development of the city was
ended by the Thirty Years' War. Troops were drawn into the city
several times, and the city was damaged by several fires. In 1766,
most houses were reduced to ashes. Because the houses were built
completely new after the fire, the historic city center has a
Baroque order.
The economic development of the town took
place mainly in the 17th to 18th centuries, when many cloth
factories operated here. In the 19th century, there was a further
development of industry, especially brush, knitting, starch. The
development of these branches was also helped by the commissioning
of the Czech - Moravian Transversal Railway (Tábor - Horní Cerekev
section) in 1883.
From 1850, Pelhřimov was a district town
and administrative center of a large area. Patriotic associations
were formed, which maintained their continuity until this time.
Associations founded in the years 1862–1894: the singing association
Záboj, Sokol, Čtenářská beseda and the association of theater
amateurs Rieger. The 20th century brought further construction and
economic development of the city. In 1903, a hospital building was
built by the road to Jihlava, which still serves today. After the
Second World War, new buildings and halls of industrial plants were
built, especially in the southern part of the city, which were
nationalized after 1948.
Communism in Pelhřimov
In 1960,
Pelhřimov became the center of the district, which also included the
surroundings of Pacov and Humpolec. The whole district was assigned
to the South Bohemian Region.
From the mid-1960s, the
construction of prefabricated housing estates in the northwest of
the city and south of the square began. Also, thanks to the process
of integration of the surrounding municipalities, the population of
the city in the period 1960–1990 rose from about 9,000 people to
16,000.
The city center was declared a city monument reserve
in 1969. Even that did not prevent large-scale demolition. Pelhřimov
thus lost almost all of its historic buildings in the wider center,
and part of the houses were demolished directly in the monument
reserve. Starý Pivovar (now a car park), a Baroque granary (now an
empty area), a large block of houses between the historic Hrnčířská
Street and the square (now the Vysočina Department Store from 1989)
and the Meat Shops and the protected Jewish synagogue (now the
Department Store) Pearl). Uniform buildings of the communist post
office, tax office, department stores Perla, Vysočina and Drupo and
others were built on the site of other buildings of the center. The
city was crossed by a highway lined with concrete walls.
Several films were made in Pelhřimov at that time, including Our Old
Man Josef and the sci-fi series by director Ota Hofman Visitors from
1983.