An old military folk song runs as follows: "Boleslav, Boleslav, what a lovely town". Ten centuries ago, the homonymous Přemyslid prince decided to build his castle here, in the centre of a region serving as a gate to one of the most beautiful districts in the whole country named The Bohemian Paradise. However, Mladá Boleslav and its surroundings are imbued not only with enchanting nature, but also with an interesting history. In the 16th and at the beginning of the 17th centuries, the town experienced its bloom, becoming the centre of the Bohemian Brethren Church and was nicknamed the Rome of the Brethren. The impact exerted by the Bohemian Brethren left its conspicuous trace not only on religious life, but also on the manufactories founded as early as 1763 in Kosmonosy and later in Josefův Důl. The textile tradition gradually petered out as another industrial branch - the mechanical engineering - developed. In 1895, two associates - Václav Klement, a bookseller, and Václav Laurin, a machinist - founded a bicycle production and repair workshop which soon shifted to producing motorcycles, and eventually in 1905 the first automobile drove out of the Laurin and Klement company. In the year of 1925, this company was acquired by the ŠKODA Plzeň concern and, with the new winged-arrow brand, these Czech cars and machinery have obtained a considerable success on the world market.
Nowadays, Mladá Boleslav keeps on being a prominent european car producer, the ŠKODA AUTO concern is a part of the supranational Volkswagen company. In a town replete with sights of historical interest from the Roman, Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque age, the modern, especially the Art Nouveau architecture is also represented. As a proof of the reconstruction of the town centre in the 1960´s, two new squares and the T.G.Masaryk Boulevard may be taken. The town has an abundant infrastructure - the historical and specialised car museums, several galleries, an exhibition and concert hall, a community centre, a municipal theatre with its own ensemble, an indoor swimming-pool and numerous sports fields. One may be tempted to go for a walk not only by a graceful vicinity abounding with forests, sandstone rocks and large expanses of water, but also by local parks, especially the largest one, the Štěpánka Park.
Historical and cultural traditions of Mladá Boleslav are deeply rooted in the town´s present. Thanks to the work of preceding generations, the town may now look with optimism towards the future years which will represent the beginning of the second millenium of the town´s existence.
PhDr. Karel Herčík
