Uničov

Uničov (Czech pronunciation: [ˈuɲɪtʃof]; German: Mährisch-Neustadt, Hanakian Oničov) is a town in the Olomouc Region of the Czech Republic. It is located in the historic Moravia region between the Plain of Hanakia and the Eastern Sudetes, about 22 km (14 mi) northwest of Olomouc. The town has around 12,400 inhabitants.

The municipality comprises the villages Benkov, Brníčko, Dětřichov, Dolní Sukolom, Horní Sukolom, Nová Dědina, Renoty, and Střelice. The main commercial activity of Uničov nowadays takes place at the engineering-metallurgical complex UNEX.

History

Uničov is one of the seven royal Moravian towns. It was founded around 1213 by the Margrave Vladislaus III, the brother of the Přemyslid king Ottokar I of Bohemia. Uničov has the oldest city chart in the Czech Republic, it received Magdeburg rights in 1223 and was granted further privileges by Ottokar's successor King Wenceslaus I in the year 1234.

After the devastations during the 1241 Mongol invasion of Europe, the Olomouc bishop Bruno von Schauenburg had the area redeveloped by German craftspeopleand tradesmen descending from Schaumburg Land in the course of the Ostsiedlung. In 1422 Hussite forces under Sigismund Korybut laid siege to the town, which upon the accession of the Hussite king George of Poděbrady in 1458 became a centre of the new confession until it fell to his rival Matthias Corvinus in 1479.