Příbram is a town in central Bohemia whose history reaches back to the beginning of the 13th century and is connected with the Prague bishopric and archbishopric.
Příbram is a town whose origin and early development are, according to the history given on the town's website, linked to land originally belonging to the estate of the magnate Hroznata, founder of the Premonstratensian monastery in Teplá. The place lay in a foothill landscape with less fertile soil, which, however, had been sought out since early times by miners of silver and iron thanks to the local geological structure of the terrain.[1]
Beginnings of settlement and the bishop's estate
The estate bearing the name Příbram belonged at the beginning of the 13th century to Hroznata, who gave most of his property to the monastery in Teplá, founded in 1193. Příbram lay far from the centre of Hroznata's interests, but it was situated in a convenient place for the Bishop of Prague, who was building a uniform administrative organisation in the country and needed places to stay overnight on journeys to more distant parts of the diocese. Příbram lay roughly halfway between Prague and the south-western border region.[1]
In 1216 the Bishop of Prague, Andrew, bought the estate called Příbram from the monastery in Teplá and began to build one of his manors there. Near the bishop's seat a small town with the right to hold markets and with a church of Saint James developed, which became the centre of an estate with several adjacent villages.[1]
Raids, devastation and recovery
After the death of King Ottokar II of Bohemia in 1278, long-lasting internal unrest broke out in the country, during which church estates were attacked. In April 1289 Příbram was plundered, some of the inhabitants were killed or carried off, and at the beginning of June of the same year another raid followed. The extent of the damage was such that the bishop had to bring new settlers into the devastated town, in 1290 or 1291. The new settlers were led by a locator named Přemysl, who then became the reeve of the restored small town. He is the first representative of Příbram's self-government known by name. This restoration was followed by a longer period of peace and economic development.[1]
The era of Archbishop Arnošt of Pardubice
The first Archbishop of Prague, Arnošt of Pardubice, who held office from 1343 to 1364, had a new stone castle built in Příbram, where he himself often stayed. In the suburb he founded a hospital with a second church, dedicated to Saint John. The archbishop's estate grew at this time by further villages, and the small town below the castle gained in importance, with the number of burgher homesteads approaching eighty. A school was already operating in the town in the 14th century. In 1406 the archbishop issued a charter confirming the legal guarantees of the burghers.[1]
The population was for the most part Czech, but a German community of silver-ore miners also lived in the town and its surroundings. Because of the successes and failures of mining, the miners at the site changed frequently and formed a separate group that did not merge with the settled burghers.[1]
The Hussite Reformation
The Hussite Reformation found a response among the inhabitants of Czech Příbram. As a result of the religious revolution the archiepiscopal see of Prague became vacant, and the town thus remained without its previous lord.[1]
Pages linking here
- Central Bohemian Region
- D4 motorway
- Dismissal of Petr Honěk from the board of Oblastní nemocnice Příbram