THE OSTRAVA REGION

Opava

A city of over 60,000 people on the Polish border, Opava is the cultural, economic and administrative center of Czech Silesia. The city has its roots in a village founded on the left bank of the Opava River on the Amber Road, the trade route running from the Adriatic in the south to the Baltic Sea in the north. It was moved across the river in the 12th century, and the first written reference to it, as Opavia, occurs in the year 1195 in the documents of Prince Vladimir of Olomouc. In 1224, the village received city status with the settling of an order of German knights there, and began to grow rapidly in size and importance.

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Novy Jicin

A district center of 30,000 inhabitants on the road from Olomouc to Ostrava, Novy Jicin's main attraction is it's well preserved historical center. Founded in the latter half of the 13th century at the intersection of two trade routes, the first written mention of the town occurs in the year 1313, when King John of Luxembourg granted it town privileges. The town was under the Kravare family until 1434, after which it came into the ownership of a number of families, until it came under the rule of the Zerotins.

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Frydek-Mistek

The history of Frydek-Mistek is that of two different towns, as they weren't joined together for the first time until 1943, and then for good in 1950. An industrial city of more than 65,000, it's located on the banks of the Ostravice River where it meets the Moravka River at the foot of the Beskyd (Beskydy) Mountains. The older town, Mistek, was first mentioned in the papers of Bishop Bruno von Schaunenburg in 1267, though it had been established at least ten years prior to that.

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