Blansko (German: Blanz) is a town in the South Moravian Region. It lies in the valley of the river Svitava, 19 km north of Brno. The center has an altitude of 276 m, most of the city is located on a slope above the left bank of the Svitavy. Blansko covers an area of 18.29 km2 and has a population of approximately 20,000.
The shards of pottery date from the first half of the
eleventh century, which were found in 2017 during construction work
at the Blane church. The first written mention of the local
settlement, today's Old Blansko, on the right bank of the Svitavy
appears in the Letop of the so-called Vyšehrad Canon and dates back
to 1136, when there was a sharp property (but mainly political)
dispute over the right to build a church in Blansko between Olomouc
Bishop Jindřich Zdík and the Brno Prince Prince Wrocław. Blansko and
other settlements became the property of the Olomouc diocese and its
holders received these goods as a fief. In the second half of the
13th century, Blansek Castle, east of Blansko, became the center of
this estate.
In 1277, the Bishop of Olomouc, Bruno of
Schauenburg, founded a new settlement on the left bank of the river,
which, as the so-called New Blansko, became the core of the later
town. In the possession of both villages, a number of lazy owners
took turns, the most famous of which was the family of lords from
Kunštát and Černohorský from Boskovice. From 1526, the Blansko
estate was owned by the family of lords from Doubravka and Hradiště,
under whom the neglected farm was improved and repaired and the
settlements of Staré and Nové Blansko merged into one whole. Jan
Dubravius bought the manor court from Blansko from Boskovice from
Jaroslav Černohorský, which he combined with other goods. In 1580,
Matyáš Žalkovský of Žalkovice promoted Blansko to a town. In the
years 1631–1694, Blansko was held by a family of lords from
Rožmitál. The Silesian family of Counts Gellhorn founded the first
ironworks here in 1698. The development of Blansko took place in the
19th century in connection with the expansion of the local ironworks
and engineering works, which were built by Hugo František Salm. The
Brno - Česká Třebová railway line, which was ceremoniously opened on
January 1, 1849, contributed to the further expansion of the town.
In this period, when robots and aristocratic estates were abolished,
Blansko became the center of one of the three judicial districts
under the governor's office in Boskovice. .
Blansko was
promoted from a township to a town by Emperor Francis Joseph I in
1905. In that year a commemorative letter was written describing the
conditions in Blansko, the state of industry, education,
associations, etc. At that time Blansko had 417 houses with 3,350
inhabitants and was developed. industrial city. The largest factory
was Salm's ironworks, which produced a wide range of not only
hardware production and employed 2,000 workers. Another plant was
the factory and foundry of the Ježek company employing 400 workers.
The Carl Mayers Söhne factory produced clay stoves and fireclay and
employed 120 workers. Other smaller companies were the František
Šauman farm machinery factory, the Družstvo železářů farm machinery
factory, the Nejezchleb brothers engineering plant, the Martin Kala
brickyard, etc. In 1911, engineer Erich Roučka founded a factory in
Blansko for the production of electrical measuring instruments and
control systems, which he sold 23 years later. Robert Sochor. In
1945, the factory was nationalized and named Metro Blansko. Together
with ČKD Blansko and Adast Blansko, it formed the core of the
Blansko industry until 1989. In 1949, Blansko became a district
town. To this day, it has retained its industrial character,
although its importance for employment in the district has declined
considerably.