Havlíčkův Brod (until 1945 Německý Brod, German Deutschbrod) is a town in the district of the same name, in the Vysočina region, 23 km north of Jihlava on the river Sázava. It is an important transport hub located in the middle of the Czech Republic. Approximately 23,000 people live here.
Originally, there was a mining settlement at the ford
across the Sázava. First, it was Smilův Brod, according to the
founder Smil of Lichtenburg, of which there are the oldest mentions
around 1234. The oldest mention of the town itself comes from a
document dated October 26, 1256, which resolves the dispute between
the Brod plebeian and the Vilém monastery. King Přemysl Otakar II.
he claimed the territory around Brod, which he considered royal land
because silver ore was mined here. He got into serious disputes with
Smil, after which, however, a large part of the land fell to the
king.
In 1274 the settlement was promoted to a town and at
the end of the 13th century the town was surrounded by walls. From
1308 until 1945, the town was called Německý Brod. During the
Hussite wars in 1422, King Sigismund and his army sought refuge
here. Hussite troops led by Jan Žižka conquered Brod and defeated
the imperial army. It was one of the last victories of Žižka, this
event also definitively ended the mining of silver. In 1637, Brod
was promoted to a royal town.
In the years 1871–1874, Vilém
Kurz, a scientist, writer and politician, one of the founders of the
Czech Tourists' Club and one of the initiators of the construction
of the Petřín Lookout Tower in Prague, worked at the local grammar
school. In 1945, the town was renamed Havlíčkův Brod after Karel
Havlíček Borovský as part of the displacement of Germans from
Czechoslovakia. The historic core of the city is a city monument
zone. Rebel beer has been produced in the city since 1995.