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Jičín (; or Gitschin) is a town in the Hradec Králové Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 16,000 inhabitants. The historic town centre is well preserved and is protected by law as an urban monument reservation. The town's history is connected with Albrecht von Wallenstein who had rebuilt the town, and many sights bear his name. [edit] History
The area of Jičín is inhabited almost 8,000 years thanks to the convenient geographical and climatic conditions. The settlement in the area of today's town is first mentioned in 1143 in deed of foundation of the Strahov Monastery. The town of Jičín was founded in the 13th century on the place of the village Staré Místo near the Veliš Castle. It was moved northward to its present location shortly afterward, which was better protected by the Cidlina River. The first written mention of Jičín comes from a document by Queen Judith of Habsburg, the wife of King Wenceslaus II of Bohemia, dated 1 August 1293. The town was built with a regular street layout around a rectangular square and was surrounded by wooden fortifications with reinforced bastions and a trench.[1] Jičín was first the royal town, but in 1337 King John of Bohemia sold it to the Wartenberg family, who owned it until the middle of the 15th century. The Hussite Wars did not affect the town much. During the 15th century, Jičín changed its lords several times until 1487, when it became a property of the House of Trčka of Lípa. With the succession of Vilém Trčka in 1540, the town began to be rebuilt in stone. The fortifications were rebuilt as well, with three gates connecting the centre with peripheries: the western Pražská Gate, the northern Holínská Gate, and the eastern Valdická Gate (1568–1578), which is the only one preserved today. After a large fire in 1572, most of the wooden houses were replaced by stone Renaissance buildings, often decorated with sgrafitti; the parish church was rebuilt as well. In 1587, Burjan Trčka had built a small castle. In 1607, Jičín was acquired by Zikmund Smiřický. The Smiřický family had built here a new larger castle, which replaced the castle of the Trčka family.[1] The biggest expansion of the town started in 1621 during the Thirty Years' War, when the town became a property of the generalissimo Albrecht von Wallenstein, who made it the centre of his Duchy of Friedland and minted his own coins there. Several architects worked for him, notably Giovanni de Galliano Pieroni, Giovanni Battista Marini, Andrea Spezza, and Nicolo Sebregondi. He had the castle and the Church of St. James rebuilt completely in the North-Italian style and connected them via a roofed footbridge. The town was to be rebuilt completely into a modern town with separated representative and craftsman parts. The parish Church of St. Ignatius together with the college was given to the Jesuits in 1627. Wallenstein also had a summer house with a court of honor, farm buildings, and a game park built in the northern part of the town near Valdice, and a linden alley along the path leading to the summer house. After the early death of Wallenstein in 1634, the town lost much of its importance.[1] In 1710 the town became a property of the House of Trauttmansdorff, which meant the arrival of the period of High Baroque, during which many constructions were completed. Many statues and sculptures in the town today come from this period. In 1784 Jičín became the seat of a new region. During the first half of the 19th century the town spread quickly, especially eastward. The Battle of Gitschin was fought nearby during the Austro-Prussian War of 1866. Until 1918, the town was part of the Austrian monarchy (Austria side after the compromise of 1867), head of the Jicin – Jičín District, one of the 94 Bezirkshauptmannschaften in Bohemia. [edit] Research Tips
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