Jihlava

During the late Middle Ages, Jihlava is a center for silver mining. In the XVIII - XIX centuries. the population of the city consisted mostly of Germans. During the Second World War, the fairly large Jewish community of Jihlava (in 1936 - 1,600 people) was completely destroyed. In the late 1940s. almost all German residents were evicted from the city. Now most of the inhabitants of Jihlava are Czechs .

In the vicinity of the Slavic settlement in 1270 , silver ores were discovered, and King Przemysl Otakar II personally took a hand at the base of the city here. In those days, a real silver rush began in Jihlava. Then Jihlava was one of the largest, most beautiful and richest Czech cities, in which arts and crafts, science and trade flourished. At that time, these “secondary” occupations saved silver when mining noble metal in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries compared to silver mining. Depleted and mines opened in Kutnaya Gora .

Louis Fürnberg , a German writer, was born in the city, and composer Gustav Mahler grew up.

• The main square is huge; it is believed that this is the largest area of ​​the Czech Republic, it contains:
  • the town hall (now the city hall), from the XVI century on the facade there is an inscription “The city of Jihlava and the Word of God will be preserved for centuries”;
  • Baroque Jesuit Church of St. Ignatius (in the courtyard - entrance to the catacombs );
  • Gothic church of St. James the Elder (the patron saint of miners) with two towers of different heights, in the summer you can climb into the clock tower with a height of 63 m and explore the city;
  • Neptune Fountain and Amphitrite Cough;
  • plague pillar of the XVIII century.
• Fragments of the city walls and one gate - the Black Mother of God (XIII century), the gate and the image of a hedgehog on the city coat of arms - symbols of the city.
• The Church of the Ascension of St. Mary at the Gate (XIII century), rebuilt in the XVI century.
• Gothic church of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross XII-XIV centuries.
• Catacombs, whose length is 25 km, area - 5 hectares, the depth of three-story corridors in some places reaches 12-15 meters. The city was built on a silver mine (the time of construction of the Otakarovsk city coincides with the time of the creation of the catacombs), and when the deposits of silver were depleted, economic townspeople began to use them for household needs, and in case of unrest - as shelters. Like any city located dangerously close to old mines, Jihlava is at risk: for example, in 1961 houses and entire streets in the city center began to fail, after which the dungeons were reinforced with concrete.

Jihlava has three sister cities ^[2] ; since 1987, close relations have also been associated with German Eilenburg ^[3] . From 1968 to the 1990s, the twin city was also the Russian city of Semiluki ^[4]

• Patrick Augusta (born 1969) - Czech hockey player
• Paul Ignaz Bayer (b. 1656) - Bohemian architect and builder
• Vincens Frantisek Faltis (born 1856) - Czech conductor
• Louis Fürnberg (born 1909) - German writer, poet, musician
• Barbara Kraft (born 1764) - Austrian artist
• Hans Krebs (1888–1947) - Politician (National Socialist)
• Gustav Mahler (born 1860) - German-Austrian composer and conductor
• Yara Pospisil (born 1905) - Swedish singer, tenor
• Ernst Sommer (born 1888) - British comedian
• Karl Hans Strobl (born 1877) - Austrian writer
• Johann von Tomaszek (born 1822) - Canadian writer
• Julius Tandler (born 1869) - physicist, politician
• Karl Tomaszek (born 1828) - Austrian Germanist
• Lubos Urban (born 1957) - Czech footballer, coach
• Richard Maria Werner (born 1854) - Austrian Germanist
• Peter Pauspertl von Drachenthal (born 1566) - mayor, sponsor of the tailors guild

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  Downtown.

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  Driveway in the center of Jihlava.

• jihlava.cz (Czech) - the official website of Jihlava
• Jihlava International Film Festival (Czech )