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Kutna Hora - is a city in Bohemia, now the
Czech Republic in the Central Bohemian Region. The town began in
1142 with the settlement of the first Cistercian Monastery in
Bohemia, Kloster Sedlitz, brought from the reichsunmittelbar
Cistercian Imperial Waldsassen Abbey. By 1260 German miners
began to mine for silver in the mountain region, which they
named Kuttenberg, and which was part of the monastery property.
The name of the mountain is said to have derived from the monks'
cowls (the Kutten). Under Abbot Heinrich Heidenreich the
territory greatly advanced due to the silver mines which gained
importance during the economic boom of the 13th century. The
earliest traces of silver have been found dating back to the
10th century, when Bohemia already had been in the crossroads of
long-distance trade for many centuries. Silver dinars have been
discovered belonging to the period between 982-995 in the
settlement of Malín, which is now a part of Kutná Hora. From the
13th to 16th centuries the city competed with Prague
economically, culturally and politically. Since 1995 the city
center has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
In 1300 when King Wenceslaus II of Bohemia issued the new royal
mining code Ius regale montanorum. This was a legal document
that specified all administrative as well as technical terms and
conditions necessary for the operation of mines. The city
developed with great rapidity, and at the outbreak of the
Hussite Wars in 1419 was next to Prague the most important in
Bohemia, having become the favourite residence of several
Bohemian kings. It was here that, on January 18, 1409,
Wenceslaus IV signed the famous Decree of Kutná Hora, by which
the Czech university nation was given three votes in the
elections to the faculty of Prague University as against one for
the three other nations. In 1420 Emperor Sigismund made the city
the base for his unsuccessful attack on the Taborites during the
Hussite Wars; Kuttenberg (Kutná Hora) was taken by Jan Žižka,
and after a temporary reconciliation of the warring parties was
burned by the imperial troops in 1422, to prevent its falling
again into the hands of the Taborites. Žižka nonetheless took
the place, and under Bohemian auspices it awoke to a new period
of prosperity.
Along with the rest of Bohemia, Kuttenberg (Kutná Hora) passed
to the Habsburg Monarchy of Austria in 1526. In 1546 the richest
mine was hopelessly flooded; in the insurrection of Bohemia
against Ferdinand I the city lost all its privileges; repeated
visitations of the plague and the horrors of the Thirty Years'
War completed its ruin. Half-hearted attempts after the peace to
repair the ruined mines failed; the town became impoverished,
and in 1770 was devastated by fire. The mines were abandoned at
the end of the 18th century. At Kuttenberg (Kutna Hora) Prague
groschen were minted until 1547. Kuttenberg became part of the
Austrian Empire in 1806 and the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1866.
The city became part of Czechoslovakia after World War I and the
collapse of Austria-Hungary. Kutná Hora was incorporated into
the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia by Nazi Germany from
1939-1945, but was restored to Czechoslovakia after World War
II. The city became part of the Czech Republic in 1993 during
the dissolution of Czechoslovakia. |
