Svitavy

Svitavy (Czech pronunciation: [ˈsvɪtavɪ]; German: Zwittau) is the capital and largest town in the Svitavy District in the Pardubice Region of the Czech Republic. The town has a population of 18,000 and is also the district administrative centre. It is the birthplace of Oskar Schindler and an important center of the Czech Esperanto movement, with an Esperanto museum that is part of the city museum.

History

The town's origins date back to around 1150 when Premonstratensian monks from nearby Litomyšl built a church and founded a village at a ford on the river Svitava ("pure", "clear"), from which the settlement got its name. Svitavy was first mentioned in 1256 when it was taken over by the bishop of Olomouc, Bruno von Schauenburg. Settlers were then brought in from Germany. In 1330, Svitavy was promoted to the status of a city, and at the end of the 14th century, walls were built around the city with three gates. In the 16th century the town flourished economically as a center of weavers and drapers. During the Hussite, Thirty Years', Napoleonic and Austro-Prussian wars, the city suffered as armies passed through the town. During the Thirty Years' War the town was devastated and in 1781 it burned down by accident. In the 19th century the building of a railway line through Zwittau contributed to the development of the town, especially the textile industry. Svitavy was historically a German-speaking town with a Czech minority; in 1930, 88.4% of the population was German. In the beginning of the 20th century the town saw tensions between Czech and German speaking people. In October 1938, the town was added to Sudetenland and occupied by the German army. After the end of the Second World War in 1945, the German population was expelled as a result of the Beneš decrees. The industrialist Oskar Schindler, who saved 1,200 Jews working at his factory during the war, was born in Zwittau.