Stříbro


Stříbro is a town in the Plzeň Region of the Czech Republic. The town features a Renaissance-era Stříbro Bridge.

Geography

The mining town is located on the Mže river in the west of the historic Bohemia region, some to the west from the region capital of Plzeň.
Stříbro is also the seat of the Municipality with Extended Competence.
The Czech name derives from silver, which used to be mined there. The German name Mies comes from the name of the river Mies/Mže.

History

According to the 16th century chronicler Wenceslaus Hajek, the mining settlement in the Duchy of Bohemia was founded by the Přemyslid duke Soběslav I in 1131. Located on an important trade route from Prague to Nuremberg, it was first documented in 1183, when Duke Frederick and his consort Elizabeth of Hungary dedicated the first parish church to the Order of Malta. In 1243 King Wenceslaus I of Bohemia left the commandry to the Knights of the Cross with the Red Star. Mies received town privileges in 1263. The Czech name Stříbro is documented from the 14th century onwards.
During the Hussite Wars, the town was besieged by the troops of Jan Žižka in 1421, though it was not occupied until in 1427. Shortly afterwards, the Hussite forces under Prokop the Great could repel an attack by the Crusaders in the Battle of Mies. In 1541 the citizens turned Protestant. Silver mining was resumed under the Habsburg king Ferdinand I in 1554. Upon the Battle of White Mountain, the town was subdued to the measures of the Counter-Reformation.
Until 1918, Mies in Böhmen was part of the Habsburg Monarchy and of the Cisleithanian side after the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867. It was the administrative centre of a district with the same name, one of the 94 Bezirkshauptmannschaften in Bohemia. From 1918, Stříbro belonged to Czechoslovakia. After World War II the remaining German population was expelled.

Notable people

Stříbro is twinned with: