Czech Republic Guide
South Moravia
Jihlava
When silver deposits were discovered in the nearby hills in the 1240s, JIHLAVA (Iglau) was transformed overnight from a tiny Moravian village into one of the biggest mining towns in central Europe. Scores of German miners settled here, and by the end of the century Jihlava boasted two hospitals, two monasteries and, most importantly, the royal mint. The veins of silver ran out in the fourteenth century, but the town continued to flourish thanks to the cloth trade, reaching its zenith around the latter half of the sixteenth century when over 700 master spinners worked in the town. The expulsion of ethnic Germans from this Sprachinsel (language-island) after 1945 changed the face of the town forever.
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