Jihlava

Jihlava grew on the river of the same name at the border of Bohemia and Moravia. Silver mining began in 1234, drawing settlers from German-speaking lands to a new royal mining town. Fortifications and a mint accompanied its prosperity, and its mining law was among the first to be codified in Central Europe. By the late fourteenth century, the richest deposits were exhausted and trade and cloth making had become the heart of its economy.

Jihlava remained a Catholic stronghold during the Hussite Wars and resisted repeated sieges. An agreement made here in 1436 recognised Sigismund as king of Bohemia. A great fire in 1523 was followed by rebuilding, but the Thirty Years' War brought devastation: Swedish troops captured the city twice, its suburbs burned and its population fell. Recovery took more than a century. In the second half of the eighteenth century Jihlava became one of the Austrian lands' largest producers of cloth and expanded beyond its walls.