.jpg){kind=link}
The story
Blansko was originally founded as a settlement on the right bank of the Svitava River, today the local part called Staré Blansko ("Old Blansko"). It was located on an important trade route from Bohemia to the regions around Danube. The first written mention of Blansko is from 1136. It was the site of dispute between Jindřich Zdík, the bishop of Olomouc, and Prince Wratislaus of Brno regarding the rights to construct a church in the village.
From the end of the 14th century, a new settlement began to grow on the left bank, known as Nové Blansko ('new Blansko'), which later became the core of the modern town. Both parts developed administratively and economically independently until 1526, when they merged. In the late 16th century during the rule of the Žalkovský of Žalkovice family, Blansko was promoted to a market town. The family had rebuild the local Gothic fortress into a Renaissance residence.
From 1698 the Gellhorn family owned the estate and founded here the first foundry and ironworks. In 1766, Blansko was bought by the Salm-Reifferscheidt family. They owned it until 1945. In the first half of the 19th century, the ironworks prospered and developed and the expansion of the production of artistic cast iron occurred. In 1849, the railway from Brno to Česká Třebová was opened. In 1905, Franz Joseph I of Austria granted Blansko the status of the town.
In 1949, Blansko became the capital of Blansko District instead of Boskovice. From the 1960s to the 1980s, the town became the centre of the engineering industry and the population grew rapidly. As a result of new construction, most of the historic buildings disappeared.
From Wikipedia’s article on Blansko, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4