Vimperk

The settlement arose near the castle of the same name , built in 1251 - 1260 . In 1423 it was burned by the Hussites , but in 1479 the king ordered the castle to be rebuilt, which contributed to the emergence of the city, around which massive fortress walls were later erected, which were partially preserved. The last reconstruction of the castle was carried out after the fire of 1857 by its last owners - the Schwarzenberg family. The oldest castle construction is the Volchok tower of the 14th century.

Vimperk is the second Czech city after Pilsen, where books were already printed in the 15th century. In 1484, one of the first printers emigrated here - Jan Alazrav, who installed the first printing press in Bohemia here, several decades after the invention of Gutenberg .

The first written mention of the Šumava glass produced in Vimperka dates to the middle of the 14th century. Since the end of the 17th century, Czech glass began to compete with the Venetian on world markets and is still one of the most popular and high-quality glasses in the world. The high reputation of Bohemian glass became possible after the discovery in the XIX century by M. Müller from the Helmbašské Vimperk factory of the secret of industrial crystal.

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  Church of the Virgin Mary

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  City Hall

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  Old magistrate building

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  Medieval frescoes in the church of St. Bartholomew

• Vimperk