Velká Bíteš (formerly Velká Byteš) is a town in Moravia in the
district of Žďár nad Sázavou, in the eastern part of the
Bohemian-Moravian Highlands, approximately 30 km from the Moravian
metropolis of Brno. The city is part of the Vysočina Region and is
one of the micro-regional centers. Approximately 5,200 inhabitants
live here.
The neighboring villages of the seat are Ruda,
Vlkov, Stanoviště, Svatoslav, Katov, Březské, Křoví, Deblín, Zálesná
Zhoř, Přibyslavice, Čikov, Krokočín, Hluboké, Jinošov, Jasenice,
Pucov, Záblatí, Nové Sady and Tasov.
History of the town
Velká Bíteš was founded in the first half
of the 13th century, probably as a peasant town on the site of a
former settlement or court. Around 1250, however, it came under the
administration of the nobility. That is probably why in the middle
of the 14th century it was just a small town, but in the seventies
of the 14th century it was transformed into a town under the
temporary margrave's administration. Velká Bíteš reached full city
law in 1408, when it had approximately 850 inhabitants. It
experienced further development after the Hussite wars from the
middle of the 15th century, which culminated in the early 16th
century. Apparently even then, the city reached a population of
1,200. During the Thirty Years' War, almost half was abandoned. The
post-war reconstruction was slow and lasted until the middle of the
18th century.
From the end of the 14th century until the
abolition of serfdom in 1848, Velká Bíteš used to be the only town
on the estate, while the nobility resided in Náměšť nad Oslavou.
This meant that Bíteš enjoyed greater independence than was
customary in the lordly towns, but the lordship's business was
locally tied to its seat. Velká Bíteš did not experience the
industrial revolution until the middle of the 20th century with the
establishment of the technically demanding company První brněnské
strojírny. At that time it had about 1800 inhabitants, now over five
thousand.
The local hospitality has deep roots in the past.
It is permanently tied to long-distance roads and agricultural
facilities. The origin of Velká Bíteš was already connected with the
crossroads of long-distance roads, and already in the Middle Ages
the Bíteš family achieved privileges linked to this fact, such as
the brewing right belonging to 33 houses on the square. The present
time also confirms the viability of the indicated assumptions, which
is embodied by the D1 highway Prague-Brno.
In the years
1990–1998 Josef Šmídek worked as the mayor, in the years 1998–2010
Mgr. Miroslav Báňa and since 2010 this function has been performed
by Ing. Milan Vlček.