Concept

Smilovice (Frýdek-Místek District)

Summary
(, Smilowitz) is a municipality and village in Frýdek-Místek District in the Moravian-Silesian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 800 inhabitants. Former Prime Minister of Poland and former president of the European Parliament Jerzy Buzek was born here. The municipality has a significant Polish minority. The village was named after František Smyl, who brought new inhabitants here. Smilovice is located about east of Frýdek-Místek and southeast of Ostrava, in the historical region of Cieszyn Silesia. It lies mostly in the Moravian-Silesian Foothills, but the southwestern part extends into the Moravian-Silesian Beskids and lies within the Beskydy Protected Landscape Area. The highest point is at above sea level. The Ropičanka stream flows through the municipality. The first written mention of Smilovice is from 1448. It belonged then to the Duchy of Teschen. František Smyl helped to settle the village and brought mainly Romanian Vlachs. For these services, Smyl was promoted to squire and became mayor of Cieszyn. The settlers subsisted on agriculture, pastoralism and mountain farming. In 1603, Duke Adam Wenceslaus sold Smilovice to Hanibal of Brno. Then the village often changed owners. In 1644, the territory where the Řeka community was founded separated from Smilovice. After Revolutions of 1848 in the Austrian Empire a modern municipal division was introduced in the re-established Austrian Silesia. The village as a municipality was subscribed to the political and legal district of Cieszyn. According to the censuses conducted in 1880–1910 the population of the municipality dropped from 684 in 1880 to 651 in 1910 with a majority being native Polish-speakers (dropping from 99% in 1880 to 96% in 1910) accompanied by a small Czech-speaking minority (at most 15 or 2.3% in 1910) and German-speaking (at most 11 or 1.7% in 1910). In terms of religion in 1910 the majority were Protestants (83.5%), followed by Roman Catholics (14.4%), Jews (9 or 1.4%) and 4 people adhering to another faiths.
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