Mladá Boleslav

Coordinates: 50°24′45″N 14°54′16″E / 50.4125°N 14.90444°E / 50.4125; 14.90444

Mladá Boleslav
Town
Flag Coat of arms
Country	Czech Republic
Region	Central Bohemian
District	Mladá Boleslav
Landmark	Mladá Boleslav Castle
River	Jizera
Center	50 km (31.07 mi) NE of Prague
- elevation	235 m (771 ft)
- coordinates	50°24′45″N 14°54′16″E / 50.4125°N 14.90444°E / 50.4125; 14.90444
Area	28.89 km2 (11.15 sq mi)
Population	50,000 (As of 31 Dec. 2006 [1])
Founded	10th century
Date	974 [2]
Mayor	MUDr. Raduan Nwelati
Postal code	293 01
Location in the Czech Republic
Wikimedia Commons: Mladá Boleslav
Website: www.mb-net.cz

Mladá Boleslav (Czech pronunciation: [ˈmladaː ˈbolɛslaf]; German: Jungbunzlau, Latin: Bumsla) is a city in the Central Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic, on the left bank of the Jizera river about 50 km northeast of Prague.

Founded in the second half of the 10th century by King Boleslav II as a royal castle. Because there already was a castle known as Boleslav near Prague, this new castle was named Mladá (young) to distinguish it from the older Boleslav, which became known in the 15th century as Stará Boleslav (Old Boleslav). The town received partial city rights in 1334 and 1436, becoming an important site on the road from Prague to northern Bohemia, Lusatia, and Brandenburg. In the 16th century the town was a leading centre of the Unitas Fratrum / Unity of the Brethren / Moravian Church church, hosting the Brethren's bishop, Renaissance church, and printing house. After being re-Catholicized in the 17th century, the town's population declined.

In the 17th and 18th centuries, Mladá Boleslav was an important Jewish center. In this period, about one half of the town's population was Jewish. In the 19th century (in fact, the period of decline of the Jewish community), Mladá Boleslav was dubbed "Jerusalem on Jizera". In 1634, Jacob Bashevi von Treuenberg (born 1580 in Verona, Italy), the first ennobled Jew in the Habsburg monarchy, was buried on the Jewish cemetery in Mladá Boleslav.

In the 19th century new prosperity came: the town became an important regional centre as new schools, theatres, museums, and the Laurin & Klement (today Škoda) automobile factory were founded. After the communist revolution in 1948, the town suffered a mass decline, however it has been improving since the 1990s as the factory is making it one of the richest Czech towns.

Visitors sights

• Templ Municipal History Museum - new holographic exhibition in gothic town-palace;
• Škoda Museum - Car museum;
• Brethren renaissance cathedral - public open gallery;
• Regional Museum - Historical, cultural and social history collections

Important personalities

• Ctibor Tovačovský z Cimburka (1437–1494), important law theorist
• Lucas of Prague (1460–1528), Brethren bishop, theologian and writer
• Jiří Kezelius-Bydžovský (1576–1655), historian
• Jan Norbert z Neuberka (1796–1859), politician, co-founder of Bohemian National Museum, historian
• Vincenc Zahradník (1790–1836), writer
• Alois Vojtěch Šmilovský (1837–1883), writer
• Siegfried Kapper (1821–1879), writer
• František Gellner (1881 - after 1914), important poet
• Alfréd Meissner (1871–1950), law theorist, leader of the Social Democratic Party, justice minister and minister of social welfare in the 1st Czechoslovak republic, deputy Jewish Elder in the Theresienstadt (Terezín) ghetto in 1944 to 1945
• Adina Mandlová (1910–1991), actress, was born there.
• Mila Rechcigl (1930-), scientist and long-term president of the Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences (SVU) was born here.
• Jan Železný (1966-), three-time Olympic gold medalist and three-time world champion in the javelin
• Martin Havlát (1981-), NHL player for the San Jose Sharks
• Radim Vrbata (1981-), NHL player for the Phoenix Coyotes
• Marek Schwarz (1986-), former NHL goalie for the St. Louis Blues

International relations

See also: List of twin towns and sister cities in the Czech Republic

Twin towns — Sister cities

Mladá Boleslav is twinned with:

• Dieburg, Germany
• King's Lynn, Great Britain
• Pezinok, Slovakia
• Vantaa, Finland

Sports

The local football team FK Mladá Boleslav plays in the Gambrinus liga (top national division), and qualified for the 2006/7 Uefa Cup via the Uefa Champions League and surprisingly beat Olympique de Marseille 4-3 on aggregate in the first round. The local ice hockey team, BK Mladá Boleslav, plays in the Extraliga (the top division in the country)

References

1. ^ 13-2101-07, Statistická ročenka Středočeského kraje - 3. Obyvatelstvo
   3. Population | ČSÚ Středočeský kraj
2. ^ Mladá Boleslav - Czech republic

External links

• Mladá Boleslav at the official website of the Czech Republic www.czech.cz
• Article at guide.travel.cz
• Regional Museum
• Youtube-chanell about the history of Mladá Boleslav
• Information about the town at the town council's website (in Czech)