Medieval City of Svitavy
The town of Svitavy, which ranks among the oldest towns in this region, is located on the border of Moravia and East Bohemia in the undulating landscape of Svitavy Highlands. Medieval settlers founded a hamlet at a ford crossing a small river, and the town grew out of it through various stages – it has progressed from a medieval town to the present cultural and economic center of this region.
The town of Svitavy with the present population of 18,000 inhabitants began its history in the 12th century. Sometime in the middle of the 12th century monks from Litomyšl founded a settlement with a church along trade routes, and named it after the local stream known as Svitava.
In the middle of the 13th century German settlers were invited by Olomouc bishop Bruno of Schauenburk to develop local forest lands.
As early as 1512 a mention about a smith guild cropped up in documents. Other guilds included shoemakers, weavers, furriers and potters who carried on their business in Svitavy. All of them contributed to the creation of the “Golden Age” of the town as the 16th century is nicknamed.
The revolution in 1848 set the town free from the control of the Olomouc diocese, and established a regional civil administration in the town of Moravská Trebová. The town’s population at that time was 4,431 people, and was growing despite the war between Prussia and Austria in 1866.
In the late 19th century a lot of institutions were established thanks to some unselfish well-to-do businessmen and their financial backing. Examples of such institutions were a retirement house, an orphanage, a hospital and schools. The real gem of the town became the library that was built by a native of Svitavy - Valentin Oswald Ottendorfer who ranked among highly respected politicians in New York. The library building and the reading-room were opened in Ottendorfer’s presence. It housed about 25,000 volumes in its depository and no wonder it became one of the greatest German libraries in the Czech lands.