Prostějov is a statutory city in Moravia with a documented history reaching back to the early Middle Ages, which in the 19th century became one of the centres of ready-made textile clothing production in Austria-Hungary.
Prostějov is a statutory city in Moravia, lying on the route of the old imperial road linking Vienna, Brno, Prostějov and Olomouc with Silesia and Poland[1].
Beginnings of settlement and the early Middle Ages
Settlement in the surroundings of Prostějov dates back to the Neolithic, to about 5000 BC[1]. An early medieval settlement arose in the area of today's Petrské náměstí and the street Újezd[1]. From the middle of the 13th century a market village developed on the site of the main square[1]. The first written mention of the village of Prostějovice dates from 1141[1]. In 1213 the Czech king Přemysl I and the Moravian margrave Vladislav Henry stayed in Prostějov[1]. Before 1300 Prostějov is recorded as a market village with the right to levy tolls[1].
The town under lordship
In 1359 Čeněk and Ondřej of Šelmberk became the holders of Prostějov; from then until 1848 Prostějov remained a subject community[1]. In 1365 it is mentioned for the first time as a market town[1]. Before 1390 it was acquired by the lords of Kravaře and attached to the Plumlov estate[1]. In 1390 Margrave Jošt granted a privilege for an annual fair, which effectively raised the town in status[1]. In 1391 Petr of Kravaře founded a monastery of Augustinian canons[1] and in 1406 extended the town's rights with a privilege introducing Olomouc (Magdeburg) law in place of the earlier law of Brno[1]. Before 1430 the town was struck by an incursion of the Hussites, who destroyed the Augustinian monastery[1], and in 1431 it was plundered by the armies of Albert of Austria[1]. The beginnings of a Jewish community are documented from 1454[1]. After the male line of the lords of Kravaře died out in 1466, Johanka of Kravaře and her husband Jan Heralt of Kunštát ruled until 1495[1]. In 1486 King Matthias Corvinus granted the town the right to a second annual fair[1].
The early modern period
The Plumlov estate with Prostějov belonged in 1495–1599 to the lords of Pernštejn and in 1599–1848 to the princely house of Liechtenstein[1]. Vratislav I of Pernštejn began building stone town walls in 1495[1]. In 1499 a community of the Czech Brethren is mentioned for the first time, and it grew stronger after the Unity of the Brethren was banned in Bohemia in 1547[1]. The Augustinian monastery legally ceased to exist in 1522 and the parish passed into the hands of the Utraquists[1]. Between 1521 and 1540 the building workshop of Jan of Pernštejn was active in Prostějov; it built the old town hall, today's building of the Muzeum Prostějovska, as well as the château and the portal of the Černý dvůr[1]. In 1527 Kašpar Aorg printed in Prostějov the book "Listové bratřím boleslavským" by Jan Dubčanský, regarded as the first Czech book printed in Moravia[1]. In 1578–1582 the château was rebuilt under Vratislav II of Pernštejn[1]. The town scribe Jan Bělkovský of Rousov founded the Memorial Books of the Town of Prostějov in 1583[1]. In 1599 the community financially supported Charles of Liechtenstein in the purchase of the Plumlov estate[1]. Re-Catholicization and the expulsion of those of other faiths began between 1622 and 1628[1]. The town was struck by a devastating Swedish invasion in 1643 and by a great fire in 1697[1]. In 1727–1730 a monastery of the Brothers of Mercy was founded[1], and in 1756 (1764) a Capuchin hospice[1]. In 1728 the imperial road linking Vienna, Brno, Prostějov and Olomouc with Silesia and Poland was built[1]. From 1754/55 the painter František Antonín Sebastini, who died in 1789, lived and worked in Prostějov[1].
From the Enlightenment to industrial expansion
Enlightenment reforms affected health care, schooling, religion and the administration of the town[1]. The foundations of modern development, however, were laid only by the era of the founders, the so-called Gründers, in the 19th century[1]. Thanks to the activity of the Jewish community, Prostějov became a commercial and industrial centre[1]. Ready-made textile clothing, produced on a large scale from the 1840s, achieved by the end of the century a privileged position in Austria-Hungary, with a third of national production[1]. According to the censuses of 1872 and 1890, Prostějov was the third largest town in Moravia, after Brno and Jihlava[1].