ABOUT TOWN

Mladá Boleslav

Mladá Boleslav 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 Unity of the Brethren church, hosting the Brethren's bishop, Renaissance church, and printing house. After being re-Catholicized in the 17th century, the town's population declined. More at http://www.mb-net.cz/?page=dejiny-mesta-automobilu and http://www.mb-net.cz/?page=pamatky.

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 Hapsburg 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 declined horribly; however it has been improving since the 1990s as the factory is making it one of the richest Czech towns. More at http://www.skoda-auto.com/cze/ .

The local football team FK Mlada Boleslav 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.