6th–16th centuries The area was settled by
Slavic tribes from
Lusatia from the 6th century onwards. In the 13th century, the local castle was held by the
Ronovci family until the middle of the century, when Častolov of Ronov was forced to return the castle and other properties to King
Ottokar II. The first written mention of Frýdlant is from 1278, when Rulko of Birbstein, Rulko held property in
Silesia and Upper Lusatia and family members held court positions. Perhaps as early as 1304, and definitely by 1381, a moat and curtain walls were constructed to surround and protect the town; these were largely removed in 1774. The Birbsteins (Biebersteins) supported
King Sigmund during the
Hussite Wars (1419–1434). Frýdlant was taken by the Hussites in 1428. The area continued to suffer through 1642. the Clam-Gallas family opened the castle to the public as a museum.
Napoleon and his troops were in the town in 1813, to the detriment of the citizens of the town. A textile industry developed in the town in the 19th century.
20th century Until 1918, the town was part of
Austria-Hungary, head of a district with the same name, one of the 94
Bezirkshauptmannschaften in Bohemia. It remained with the Clam-Gallas family until the last descendant Clotilda, who died in 1982, having moved to Vienna in April 1945. After
World War II, it fell back to
Czechoslovakia and renamed Frýdlant. The German-speaking population was
expelled according to the
Beneš decrees and replaced by
Czech settlers. In 2016, Georg Mederer and Erich Stenz, German treasure hunters, claimed that trucks delivered items from the amber chamber of
Saint Petersburg, Russia to the castle in the late period of the war. They state that the items previously owned by
Peter the Great were stolen by the Nazis and stored in the castle cellars with contemporaneously constructed brick walls. The men further state that they have been unable to search for the stolen items due to the Czech government and the Czech National Heritage Institute. ==Demographics==