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VELVARY | |||
| Bakov nad Jizerou Benátky nad Jizerou Benešov Bělá pod Bezdězem Čelákovice Dobříš Hořovice Kladno Kolín Kostelec nad Černými lesy Kralupy nad Vltavou Mladá Boleslav Mladoboleslavsko Nelahozeves Praha Roztoky Rožmitál pod Třemšínem Říčany Svatá Hora u Příbrami Veltrusy Velvary Zruč nad Sázavou |
The countryside around Velvary is a typical part of the region around the Ríp Hill in terms of situation and morphology. The slightly undulating land is intersected by a couple of brooks-the Červený and the Bakovský-merging in Velvary to hurry together down to the Vltava. Ancient men had settled down here long before the Slavonic primal father Czech could ascend the Říp top. Found in the Town Museum of Velvary and in the National Museum of Prague now, archaeological artifacts have proved settlements dating back to the late Stone Age. It is hard to say when the freedoms of a city were granted to the municipality because the fire of 1482 consumed the City Archives with all the old deeds of Charles IV, Sigismund of Luxembourg and George of Poděbrady. That is why King Vladislav II Jagellon confirmed all the burnt freedoms to Velvary once more including those of his own deed of the 4 April of the same year. The latter raised the township to a city with the rights to build up city walls, to hold the annual market each 28th of October plus to collect market customs fees. However big the fire of 1482 might have been, it was not the last. More fires followed in 1490, 1531 and the frequency was even higher in the l7th and l8th centuries. This fiery record must have changed the city's face so profoundly that there is hardly anything left from the Gothic era now. First mentioned in 1337, the most valuable witness of those times is the St Catherine's Parochial Church in the square. When the English ambassador entered Velvary in 1591 he found himself in a medieval city slightly penetrated by the emerging Renaissance. Having finished the Renaissance château, Italian stone dressers and masons started streaming in from the nearby Nelahozeves to offer their art and skills to Velvary's burghers. Leading figure of Velvary's Italian artistic community was Santini Malvazione who came from the beautiful country around the Como Lake in northern Italy. His main work was the St George's Church in the churchyard built in 1613-1616, today a unique example of the late-Renaissance sacral architecture with partially disclosed original paintings. Interior stuccoes are said to be Batisti's work. A touch of Renaissance was added to the St Catherine's Church, too, but much of it vanished in the course of later baroque and neo-Gothic adaptations. Redeveloped by Jan Bárta Brandýský around 1614, the house no. 57 (Reduta) is perhaps the most outstanding piece of late- Renaissance architecture in town. Another Renaissance sight is the recently renewed Prague Gate built by the architect Bartoloměj Vlach under the burgomaster Jiří Mydlář in 1580. The fortifications further included the earlyl6th-century Roudnická Gate (torn down in 1841 ) and the Malovarská Gate that was replaced by the Renaissance Slanská Gate in 1573-1576 (torn down in 1878). The Chržínská Gate consisted of a door suspended on a couple of masonry pillars while the gate-house was just a passage through the house no. 205 with doors on both ends, which lead to the mill, the gardens and meadows. Part of the Renaissance of Velvary is the Church of the Execution of John the Baptist in Hospozín decorated with a portal from 1595 and with heraldic signs. 1818 was the year Velvary's population recovered to the level before the 30-Year VUar. Newly established authorities triggered vivid construction activities of the 1840s. The expansionist overpressure erazed the walls and three of the four gates. But the big impulse arrived on wheels - it was the railway from Prague via Kralupy and Velvary to Dresden. The first train was given a warm welcome in Velvary on l8th October, 1882, and others that followed helped the development of local industries a great deal - let us mention the sugar refinery built in 1871 and the chemicals factory (today Velvana a.s.). The economic growth of the late l9th century was accompanied by the development of club and culture activities. Velvary's pride is Bohemia's first voluntary fire brigade founded by Karel Krohn in 1870. The Teachers' Club Budeč was founded in 1870, the Sokol Sports Association in 1884 and the amateur theatre club in 1886 to continue the tradition of the student theatre from 1861-1863. |
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