Nové Město na Moravě (German: Neustadt in Mähren) is a town in
the west of Moravia in the district of Žďár nad Sázavou in the
Vysočina region, 10 km east of Žďár nad Sázavou, on the southern
edge of the Žďárské vrchy. It was founded around 1250 by Boček from
Obřany, the founder of the Cistercian monastery in Žďár nad Sázavou.
It enjoyed its greatest prosperity during the Renaissance under the
lords of Pernštejn. The preserved historical core of the city forms
a city monument zone, which is complemented by the rich sculptural
decoration of the streets and squares by local natives Jan Štursa
and Vincenc Makovský. The most important monuments include the
Catholic Church of St. Kunhuty, the building of the old town hall
and the castle. Approximately 9,800 inhabitants live here.
Nové Město na Moravě has always been the venue for major sporting
events of world importance. The World Cup race in cross-country
skiing is already history, the Golden Ski, whose place was taken
over by the World Cup races in biathlon. In February 2013, the
Biathlon World Championship 2013 took place here, and every year the
Mountain Bike World Cup race is also held here. The surroundings of
the city are suitable not only for fans of winter sports, but in
summer it offers countless possibilities for hikers and cyclists.
Events take place in the Vysočina arena.
The history of the town is connected with the establishment of the
Židár monastery founded by Boček from Obřany in the middle of the 13th
century, until then almost the entire territory of the Czech-Moravian
border was covered by the border forest. The first written mention of
the village dates from 1267, where the settlement is still mentioned as
Bočkonov (Bočkov) in a document confirming Bočko's bequest to the
monastery. As New Town (Latin Nova Civitas) it appears for the first
time in the charter of King Wenceslas II. from 1293, where it is already
mentioned as a small town. In 1312, after the death of Smilo z Obřany,
Nové Město fell to Jindřich z Lipá. He had a fortress built in the
village, which used to be called a castle because of its vastness.
From 1496, the estate belonged to the Pernštejn family, during whose
time the city experienced a significant economic boom, especially under
Vratislav of Pernštejn (1561–1582). Three years after his death, the
estate was sold by Jan and Maxmilián from Pernštejn to Vilé Dubský from
Třebomyslice. He had the desolate fortress demolished and built a
Renaissance castle in its place, in which he settled, after a long time
the lordship once again resided directly in the town.
After Bílá
hora, the manor was confiscated, and in 1624 the new owner became
Cardinal František of Ditrichštejn, who at that time also owned the
neighboring monastery manor of Žďárská, from where the administration of
the local manor was now carried out. During his ownership, Nové Město
was elevated to a city (1635), at the same time the city's coat of arms
was restored.
In 1638, the estate changed owners again. This
time, Šimon Kratzer from Schönsperk (previously economic administrator),
who supported glass production in the estate, also intended to build
iron smelters, becomes the man. However, his intention did not come to
pass, because in 1645 he was shot by the Swedes during their attack on
the city. He managed the manor ever since and in 1660 his son František
Maxmilián Kratzer took over. In the meantime, he carried out his
father's plan, when in 1651 he built two iron blast furnaces in Kadova
and the production of associated hammers in Kuklík, Vříšt and Líšná.
This laid the foundation for iron production in Novoměstsk.
Part
of the inhabitants of Nové Město in Moravia belonged to a community of
secret evangelicals, in the 17th century violent re-Catholicization took
place here, which is also evidenced by the death registers from
1673-1680, where 57 cases of donkey burials were recorded (i.e. 11
percent of the population).
In 1691, on the basis of a court
decree, the estate fell to Prince Ferdinand Ditrichštejn. 8 years later,
his son Leopold sold Nové Město to the secular nobles' foundation in
Brno, to which it belonged until 1945. Many nobles took turns at the
head of the Foundation Institute. During their reign, the so-called late
mountain colonization took place on the Novoměstsk estate in the 18th
century, during which the youngest villages such as Blatiny, Koníkov,
Samotín, Krátká and Moravské Milovy were established. During the reign
of Countess Hohenzollern (1721–1745), the Catholic church was newly
rebuilt, her successor Baroness Miniati di Campoli (1746–1759) rebuilt
the castle in Baroque style and extended the cemetery church. With the
abolition of serfdom in 1848 - under the Baroness Skrbenská (1836–1858)
- the lordship lost its previous significance.
In 1723, the city
was engulfed in a great fire, in 1791 there was a podruzh rebellion and
in 1796-1797 the Helvetic rebellion. In 1850, Nové Město became the seat
of the district governorship and at the same time one of the three
judicial districts. Since 1906, Nové Město has had the epithet "in
Moravia" to distinguish it from other Nové Městos. In 1949, the seat of
the district was transferred to Žďár nad Sázavou. The more recent
history of the town was significantly influenced by the establishment of
a real gymnasium in 1894, the construction of the railway from Tišnov to
Žďár nad Sázavou in 1905, the development of skiing from the end of the
19th century and the related production of skis, started in 1896 by
Adofel Slonk, as well as the production of surgical instruments started
in 1949.
Construction development
The settlement, later the
town of Nové Město, was founded in the second half of the 13th century
above the confluence of the Bezděčka and Bobrůvka rivers. The first
houses were built in the southern part of today's Vratislav Square.
Until the middle of the 16th century, the development was limited to
only one square; today's Vratislavovo, Komenského and Palackého náměstí
were joined together. Roads ran from this square, which determined the
further progress of the construction. Bobrovská (Nečasova street) led in
a southern direction, to Bobrová; northwest to Žďár Žďárská street. Nové
Domy Street (Masarykova Street) led in a northeasterly direction, at the
end of which the road split into two branches, Svratka and Jimramov. In
the mid-50s of the 16th century, a town hall was built by rebuilding a
burgher's house in the southwestern part of the square, at the same time
the block of houses here separated the so-called Lower (Palacké) square.
Significant construction interventions in the present form of the
town took place at the end of the 16th century. The owner of the New
Town manor, Vilém Dubský from Třebomyslice, not only had it restored,
but also greatly expanded the manor house, creating a Renaissance
castle. At the same time, the manor brewery was built and a little later
the so-called Hrádek (Halina), the residence of his wife Kateřina
Zahrádecká from Zahrádek. This separated the area of today's Comenius
Square. At the end of the 16th century, the eastern end of Malá Street
was created as a branch from Nové Domy Street, which led to the Church
of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary in the new cemetery. The further
part of Malá ulica, which was called Pod kostelíčkem, was created only
at the beginning of the 18th century. In the second half of the same
century, the city was expanded by Svatojánská street (Podstrání, today
Brněnská and Jánská streets).
Further construction development
was significantly affected by large-scale destructive fires. The one
that broke out on April 3, 1723, destroyed houses especially on the
northwest side of the square. After the great fire in 1801, which
affected 208 houses, including the church, brick construction prevailed
in Nové Město, but it continued to be concentrated mainly in the city
center.
In the first third of the 20th century, the city began to
grow rapidly, new construction moved to the area called Niva, which
filled the area between the former city, Mala and Žďárská Streets and
both ponds (Cihelský and Klečkovský). In the same period, however, the
city also grew in the north and northeast, around the train station.
Behind Nový Domy, the east side of the road to Jimramov stops, the
district created here is called Hejkalov; it is also being built in the
street leading from the falconry to the station (Tyršova and Smetanova
streets) and on the land near the viaduct (the location was called
Shanghai, today Mírová and Výhledy streets). A row of houses grew up
behind the railway station (Nezvalova street), the first houses were
built above the Kazmír pond (Německého street). At the turn of the 30s
and 40s of the 20th century, a large area of the district hospital was
built south of the Židár road, and across the road, the first New Town
housing estate was built for the hospital's employees.
The city
experienced massive construction development in the second half of the
20th century. North-west of the city, near the railway line by the road
to Vlachovice, the Chirana (Medin) company, a manufacturer of surgical
instruments, was built, which started its operations at the end of 1949.
North-east of the city, in the area of the former Slonka company
situated east of the road to Pohledec, was listed in 1951, the Sport
(Sporten) ski production company was put into operation; 20 years later,
a new operation was built here. Housing construction was decisively
influenced by uranium mining in the vicinity of Dolní Rožínka. The panel
housing construction, intended mainly for its employees, took place in
several waves. In the 60s of the 20th century, the housing estate U
nádraží (the so-called Staré sídliště) was created and was also built on
Tyršová street, at the same time three tower houses were built (named
after the color of their facades); in the following decade, a housing
estate grew up on Hornická Street. Almost the entire eastern side of
Gottwaldova (Masarykova) Street was demolished in the 1980s due to
further panel construction, which fundamentally affected the appearance
of Comenius Square. On its northern side, a modern building of a
shopping center has been built, on the western side, a modern department
store has stood since the mid-1970s.
The free area north of
Žďárská street was also gradually built up, the Pod zástokou housing
estate was created here, and the panel construction continued with the
construction of the Pod nemocnicí housing estate (Pavlovova and Mendlova
streets). Two hotel hostels for miners, named Uno and Duo, have sprung
up near the panel housing estates. The so-called the "old hotel" (Uno)
was modified in the 1990s by reconstruction and subsequent extension
into town apartments; The "new hotel" (Duo) was sold to a real estate
agency, it has apartments, but is also used for commercial purposes. The
construction of family houses was mainly concentrated in the area above
the Kazmír pond, where a separate urban district was created on the
floor plan of the letter U, which is called Bethlehem. However, family
houses were also built in a number of other places, especially behind
Klečkovec and Cihelňák in the area called Korsika (Dukelská and
Veslařská streets) and at the foot of Brožkova hill (Na Výsluní,
Zahradní streets). At the beginning of the 1970s, the new Ski Hotel was
put into operation, built in the Ochoza forest at the foot of the Harus
hill.
In connection with this large-scale housing construction and the
increase in the number of inhabitants, a whole series of civic
facilities were built from the end of the 1960s. A new elementary school
was built on Leandra Čecha Street, west of the gymnasium in the
direction of the Klečkovské rybník; a cultural center was built on the
site of the demolished falconry on Tyršová street (1976); kindergartens
were also built (on Drobného, Malá, Tyršová and Žďárská streets). The
construction industry also affected the area of the district hospital,
in the late 1970s it was possible to complete the long-planned
construction of the gynecology-obstetrics pavilion; most of the
pavilions were gradually reconstructed, the central operating room and
heliport were built. Although the plan to build a bus station outside
the city center, in the area under the castle, was already approved in
the 1970s, it was not opened until 1991. In the mid-1990s, a nursing
home was built south of Žďárská Street, in which city apartments.
Nečasova street
Nečasova street consists of houses on both sides
of the road coming from Palackého náměstí and leading to the roundabout,
as well as several houses on the slope on the right side of the road
going up to Nová Ves. This street has been called Bobrovská since time
immemorial. The name Obrovská also appears in several old records, from
the time when Beaver was also called Obrová. The original development of
Bobrovská Street consisted only of houses from Palacký (formerly Dolní)
Square to the bridge, i.e. descriptive numbers 17–31, with the exception
of house No. 25, which once stood as far as the bridge and was counted
to Svatojánské Street.
It is the mouth of Bobrovská street at the
crossing of the Bezděčky stream that has seen the biggest changes
compared to the past. At the turn of 1938 and 1939, during the
reconstruction of the district road passing through Nový Město,
Bobrovská Street was paved with stone paving. The new road was
straightened at the beginning of Bobrovská street after crossing the
Bezděčka stream (it used to follow a right-hand curve). A new bridge had
to be built and the water reservoir above the Jelínk mill (No. 26) had
to be relocated. A new reinforced concrete bridge with a width of 8
meters was built. The cross standing at the fork in the road to Nova Ves
and Petrovice also had to be moved, the intersection was widened and
made clearer by cutting down trees. At the beginning of the 70s of the
last century, this intersection changed again, when the newly built I/18
road began to pass through it. And it only recently got its present
shape with a roundabout.
House No. 20 was already called Hell in
the old land registers, and according to it, its owner was called
Pekelník. Perhaps this designation originated in the times when there
was a hammer here. The "Na Pekle" pub was more famous than the hammer.
In the middle of the 19th century, a butcher originally from Židár,
Václav Procházka, opened it here. His wife was a famous cook and so the
pub prospered. Procházka himself became most famous in the revolutionary
1848. He became the governor and trainer of the National Guard and was
also elected a member of the Reichstag in Vienna. The last innkeeper in
"Hell" was Josef Zábrš, another native of Žďár, one hundred years later.
From hell we can continue straight to purgatory. We will thus end up in
another pub, which used to be in the recently demolished house No. 27,
standing at the turnoff to Jelínk's mill. It was called In Purgatory or
at Valíšké. In the second half of the 19th century, Josef Vališ and
later his son of the same name used to be an innkeeper here. Both were
also weavers and churchmen. Joseph Jr. but eventually he sold the inn
and moved to America.
After visiting hell and purgatory, you
might expect to go straight to heaven. We stop at a dye shop. At the
turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, František Kubík operated a
successful dyeing factory in No. 29. He was very well known to his
surroundings, because thanks to him the "eternal blue stream" flowed
behind the house. The stream that used to flow behind the houses on the
west side of Bobrovská Street was actually mill waste. Water from
Kazmír's mill (No. 35) flowed through this and entered the reservoir in
front of Jelínek's mill. Although this mill with the descriptive number
26 is a bit out of the way, we can still count it with Bobrovská street.
There used to be a mill here at least at the end of the 15th century,
when it was called Šarlův. At the end of the 16th century, it was bought
by Jiřík Humpolecký from Rybensko and since then it has been known as
the Humpolecký mill. During the Thirty Years' War, the mill was shut
down and became the property of the lord. Since the 18th century,
members of the Jelínk miller family have been the top millers here. The
last miller was already in the twentieth century, Augustin Jelínek.
Commemorative plaques dedicated to important personalities began to
appear on the houses in Bobrovská Street from 1938. On July 17, 1938, a
memorial plaque was first unveiled on house No. 22, where the Russian
legionnaire František Seidl, who fell in June 1918 during the conquest
of Kurgan, lived from his early childhood. Nine years later - on July
27, 1947 - the then Minister of Nutrition Václav Majer unveiled a
commemorative plaque at the birthplace of engineer Jaromír Nečas.
Jaromír Nečas was born in 1888 in house No. 31, in the times of the
First Republic he became the Minister of Social Welfare and was later a
member of the exiled government in London. And it was in his honor that
in October 1945 Bobrovská Street was renamed Nečasova Street. In 1910,
Josef Veselka, later founder and choirmaster of the Moravan Academic
Singing Association, professor at the Brno Conservatory and JAMU, was
born in house No. 21 on Bobrovská street. And on May 8, 1996, a
commemorative plaque was unveiled at his birthplace, then already in
Nečasova Street. It was the third and so far the last one in Nečasova
street.
Palacky square
Palackého náměstí is a relatively
exclusive address in New Town, only the residents of four houses -
descriptive numbers 16, 32, 33 and 34 - can boast of it. The other
houses with windows facing Palacký náměstí are already included in
Nečasova Street or Vratislavovu náměstí. House No. 97, which until
recently housed the information center, is hidden in the building that
separates the two squares today. In this place, it is assumed that the
original fortress, or at least the residence of noble officials in the
times when Nové Město was owned by members of the powerful Pernštejn
family. How else to interpret the sign of the bison's head decorating
the stone column on which the vault of the ground floor room of house
No. 97 is lowered.
Not only a cluster of houses, but also a break
in the terrain separates Vratislavovo and Palacký náměstí. And precisely
because of its location, Palackého náměstí was originally called Dolní
náměstí or Dolní rynk. The center of the square is a fountain, which
took the form of a stone quadrilobe (four leaf) in 1891. In the summer
of 1905, it was installed with Jan Štursa's sculpture Song of the
Mountains depicting a shepherd with a sheep on his lap. Since 1942, the
original sculpture made of Hořice sandstone has been located in the
Horáck Museum, and a copy made at the Zlín School of Art, led by
Vincenzo Makovský at the time, is located on the fountain. The so-called
Pasáček became one of the symbols of New Town. However, it is not the
only sculptural creation decorating Palacký náměstí. The statue of
František Palacký was originally supposed to be placed on the fountain,
which eventually found its place on the opposite slope. It was
ceremonially unveiled on October 26, 1902. From then on, the square was
called Palacký, although the name change was officially confirmed only
in 1907. However, the occupation and the establishment of the
protectorate brought with it an order to remove everything that did not
correspond to the "changed state legal conditions". And so, on June 28,
1940, the statue of Palacký was removed, and in October of the same year
the square was again renamed Dolní. After the liberation, the name
Palackého náměstí returned. The city had to wait until June 2, 1946 for
the return of the statue, when the statue was re-unveiled in its
original location after long disputes over its location. Like the Song
of the Mountains, the statue of the Father of the Nation is also the
work of Jan Štursa. Palacký's statue is also Šturs's first public
commission.
Both statues were created at the initiative and with
the support of Josef Jelínek, Šturs' guardian and patron. Josef Jelínek
(1829–1903) used to be a Novi Město tanner and the owner of house No. 32
on Palackého náměstí (a house with a turret), which was said to be the
home of the wealthy Jelíneks. He was active in the public sphere, either
as chairman or member of a number of local associations, or as a member
of the municipal committee (deputy). In the years 1861–1891, he held the
post of mayor of the city with breaks. He was also a member of the
Moravian Provincial Assembly. At his suggestion, a statue of Vratislav
from Pernštejn was made for the fountain in what was then the Great
Square. In 1891, Josef Jelínek was granted honorary citizenship of the
city. Josef Jelínek Jr. (1858–1936) also followed in his father's
footsteps. In 1913, like his father, he was elected mayor of the city,
and was so until the post-war elections in 1919. Ever since he was
elected mayor, he faced adversity from some of the New Town residents
(his father did not avoid it either). In 1923, he sold his house to
"era" and moved to Pardubice. House No. 32 then became the seat of the
financial authorities with district jurisdiction. When Nové Město lost
its status as a district town, an independent music school was
established in the building in 1951.
A number of interesting personalities can also be found among the
residents of corner house No. 34. From 1662 to the present, it has been
owned by members of the Némecký family. The first of them was Martin
Německý, who married Dorota, the daughter of Kateřina Kalousková called
Šlejfrlice (apparently she was the owner of a sanding shop). The surname
also passed to house No. 34, which was called the Šlejfrlík family.
Thanks to the musical talent of its residents, the house acquired a
different epithet during the 18th century. In 1752, Daniel Německý, who
was a musician, town organist and later rector of the town school,
became the owner of the house. From his time, house No. 34 began to be
called u Varhaníky. However, the most famous native of house No. 34 was
Daniel Matyáš Německý (1762–1820), a double doctor (of philosophy and
all medicine), a popular doctor, scientist, innovator and, of course,
also a musician. The German family also gave birth to the famous skiers
Josef and Otakar Němek. The surname Šlejfrlík did not disappear in
exchange for Organist. But it was transferred to the opposite corner
house No. 101, which came into the possession of the second branch of
the Némecký family founded by Václav Némecký, the grandson of Martin
Némecký-Šlejfrlík. From these "Šlejfrlík" also came František Německý, a
well-known New Town innkeeper and hotelier, the founder of Hotel
Německý, which stood on Masaryková street 30 years ago. An interesting
link between houses No. 34 and 101 used to be the city gate, which once
closed access to the city center from Žďárská street.
Žďárská
street
There is no doubt about the origin of the name Žďárská street,
it was the route from Nové Město to Žďár. With the name, the street also
got a fire - fire. The fire that broke out on the night of June 13, 1879
in the barn of house No. 84, was permanently recorded in the history of
the entire town. Thanks to the strong wind driving the fire towards the
center of the city, 19 residential and 12 farm buildings burned down. In
terms of scale, this fire could not aspire to the "title" of the largest
fire in history, but it nevertheless became the impetus for a historic
decision. A few weeks later – on August 24, 1879 – a volunteer fire
brigade was founded in Nové Město.
However, water is also a hot
topic. Three mills mentioned already in the 16th century belonged to
Žďárská Street. Not far from the bridge stood Han's mill (no. 81). The
mill already burned down during the memorable fire of the entire town in
1801. It was rebuilt after this fire. It was brought to ruin several
decades later by local millers Josef Ondra and after him Jakub Žák. The
mill buildings fell into disrepair and were burdened with debt.
Crumbling but well insured, the mill burned to the ground on the night
of June 22, 1907. The mill was not restored, only the sawmill. Since
1918, Filip Jaroš started running a sawmill business at the mill, and
that is why this building is known as Jaroš's sawmill.
The fire
also put an end to another mill known as Kazmír's (no. 35). Originally,
this mill and the pond above it were called Škrobův. Probably from the
time of the miller Kazimír Štampa, who lived at the turn of the 17th and
18th centuries, the mill and the pond began to be called Kazmírův. The
last miller in Kazmír's mill was Alois Jelínek from the well-known
Fryšava miller's family. The history of the mill was closed by a fire
that broke out at midnight on September 27, 1916.
The third of
the mills saw its demise even without the contribution of the fire. At
the end of the 16th century, it was built by Jan Štrafa under what was
then Sadový rybník. Today, the pond is called Klečkovský after Jan
Klečk, who sold the mill to the nobility in 1643. The mill was also
called Ráčkův, and the pond is sometimes still called that today. The
last miller here was Josef Ráček, a well-known eccentric who let the
mill fall into disrepair and at the end of his life tried to get money
for repairs from the heritage office. The mill eventually bought the
Novi Město estate and had it demolished in June 1935.
Almost ten
years later, Nové Město also experienced a wartime fire. On May 9, 1945,
Red Army aircraft strafed and bombed retreating German units. Several
civilians also lost their lives in the air attack, many houses were
damaged. Most of them were in Žďárská Street. The house No. 82 of
postman František Vyplašil, standing at the intersection (near the
mirror) of today's Žďárská and Dukelská streets, was no longer restored.
In its place, a stone terrace was built in 1953 at the suggestion of
Vincenc Makovský. Already three years earlier, Žďárská street was
renamed Stalingradska, in memory of the city destroyed during the Second
World War. The street returned to its original name in 1962
Nové Město na Morava is located in the western part of Moravia;
it is located 10 km east of Žďár nad Sázavou on the first class road
I/19. It lies at an altitude of 600 m above sea level on the
southern edge of the Žďárské vrchy, which are the eastern part of
the extensive Bohemian-Moravian Highlands.
The town is
located in the southern part of the Protected Landscape Area Žďárské
vrchy. The PLA was declared in 1970 and covers 715 km² at altitudes
from 490 to 836.3 m above sea level (the highest peak is the Nine
Rocks). It is the source area of many rivers, through which the
main European watershed between the North and Black Seas passes. One
of the typical landscape features in this area are gneiss rock
formations that were created by frost weathering on the wooded peaks
of the Žďárské vrchy, for example Malinská skála, Dráteničky, Čtyři
palice, Pasecká or Lisovská skála. About 15 km southeast of the city
is the western town of Šiklův mlýn. The largest ski slope in
Vysočina is also located above Nový Město - the Harusův kopec ski
slope. The slope is covered with artificial snow and illuminated
during the season. Harus' hill - "Harusák" is already mentioned in
Bohumil Polách's book Srub radosti.