Vratislavice nad Nisou

Vratislavice nad Nisou (German: Maffersdorf) is a district of the city of Liberec, in the north of the Czech Republic. It has around 6,700 inhabitants and straddles the Nisa river between Liberec and Jablonec, around 3.5 km south-east of Liberec city centre.

History

The settlement of Wratislawicz was established, it is thought, in the 13th century by Bohemian colonists on the left bank of river Nisa. Very first written document mentioning this place comes from the 1460s which by this stage had a stone-walled church. The right bank of Nisa was settled (as an independent village) during the 16th century by German speaking people from Silesia, and called the village Meffersdorf after the settlers' home village. These two villages possessed not only different names, but even belonged to different governances (Liberec, and Český Dub. After Thirty Years' War the German name, mangled to Maffersdorf, became used for both places - the name Wratislawicz faded into obscurity.

Maffersdorf on the right bank (Liberec side) of Nisa continued to grow steadily. In 1701, construction of a new parish church was finished, designed by a Prague architect Marco Antonio Canavelli.