Bohumín

Bohumín (ˈboɦumiːn; , Oderberg) is a town in Karviná District in the Moravian-Silesian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 21,000 inhabitants. Bohumín is made up of town parts and villages of Nový Bohumín, Pudlov, Skřečoň, Starý Bohumín, Šunychl, Vrbice and Záblatí. Bohumín is located about north of Ostrava on the border with Poland, in the historical region of Cieszyn Silesia. It lies in the Ostrava Basin. The confluence of the Oder and Olza rivers is situated north of the town. The Oder forms the western border of the municipal territory and the Olza forms the northern border with Poland. The area is rich in water bodies. The artificial lakes Velké Kališovo and Malé Kališovo with a total area of and Vrbické Lake were created by flooding gravel quarries. They are used for recreational purposes. There is also the Záblatský fish pond in the southern part of the territory. The first written mention of Bohumín (as Bogun) is in a stylistic exercise of Queen Kunigunda of Halych from 1256–1262. It was described as a large village. It was located on a trade route from Prague to Kraków. King Louis II granted the town and château of Bohumín to George, Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach in 1523. The town began to develop during rule by the House of Hohenzollern, although further development of Bohumín was halted by frequent epidemics of bubonic plague and floodings of the Olza. It was officially known in German as Oderberg, and by the end of the 16th century the majority of citizens followed Protestantism. The successor after the Hohenzollerns in 1620 was Lazar Henckel, whose family of bankers and entrepreneurs hailed from Habsburg-ruled Hungary. After defeating Maria Theresa of Austria during the Silesian Wars, King Frederick II of Prussia annexed most of Silesia, although Bohumín remained in Austrian Silesia within the Kingdom of Bohemia. After the Revolutions of 1848 in the Austrian Empire a modern municipal division was introduced in the re-established Austrian Silesia.