Poděbrady

Poděbrady stands on the Elbe in central Bohemia, near a ford on the old road from Prague toward Silesia and Poland. King Ottokar II acquired the estate in the thirteenth century and built a stone water castle. Charles IV later granted it to the lords of Kunštát, whose descendants became known as the Poděbrady family. Their most famous member, George of Poděbrady, became King of Bohemia.

George's descendants granted the settlement town privileges in 1472. Poděbrady prospered under Ferdinand I, but the Thirty Years' War and later fires brought hardship. The greatest fire, in 1681, destroyed the town hall and most of the wooden houses. Afterwards only brick houses were permitted around the square, changing the appearance of the town as it was rebuilt.