Mladá Boleslav

Mladá Boleslav stands above the Jizera in central Bohemia, on the site of a stronghold founded by Duke Boleslaus II. A settlement grew below it on the road from Prague toward Lusatia, and in 1334 the market was moved beside the castle and raised to the rank of a town. During the Hussite Wars its inhabitants supported the Taborites.

In the late fifteenth century the Unity of the Brethren settled in a deserted monastery, beginning a period of prosperity. The town became a centre of the Brethren, with a bishop, a Renaissance church and a printing house. In 1518 Mikuláš Klaudyán printed the first map of Bohemia here. The town also had a Jewish community, recorded from 1471; Emperor Rudolf II raised Mladá Boleslav to the status of a royal city in 1600.