Middle Ages As early as the 7th century, a
gord of the early
Slavs developed in the present-day quarter of Povel. It was probably an administrative centre of a larger unit. Povel is considered one of the three most important
Moravian localities of the early Middle Ages. In the early 9th century, the gord was conquered and completely disappeared. A new centre, where the Great Moravian governor resided, developed at the
gord at Předhradí, a quarter of the inner city (the eastern, smaller part of the medieval centre). This settlement survived the defeat of the Great Moravia (c. 907) and gradually became the capital of the province of Moravia. The
bishopric of Olomouc was founded in 1063. It was possibly re-founded because there are some unclear references to bishops of Moravia in the 10th century—if they were not only missionary bishops, but representatives of some remains of regular church organization, then it is very likely that these bishops had their seat in Olomouc. Centuries later in 1777, it was raised to the rank of an
archbishopric. The bishopric was moved from the church of St. Peter (since destroyed) to the church of
Saint Wenceslaus in 1141 (the date is still disputed, other suggestions are 1131, 1134) under bishop
Jindřich Zdík. The bishop's palace was built in the
Romanesque architectural style. The bishopric acquired large tracts of land, especially in northern Moravia, and was one of the richest in the area. Olomouc became one of the most important settlements in Moravia and a seat of the
Přemyslid government and one of the
appanage princes. In 1306 King
Wenceslas III stopped here on his way to Poland. He was going to fight
Władysław I the Elbow-high to claim his rights to the Polish crown and was assassinated. With his death, the whole Přemyslid dynasty died out. The city was officially founded in the mid-13th century and became one of the most important trade and power centres in the region. In the Middle Ages, it was the biggest town in Moravia and competed with
Brno for the position of capital. Olomouc finally lost after the
Swedes took the city and held it for eight years (1642–1650). In 1235, the
Mongols launched an
invasion of Europe. After the
Battle of Legnica in Poland, the Mongols carried their raids into Moravia, but were defensively defeated at the fortified town of Olomouc. The Mongols subsequently
invaded and defeated Hungary. In 1454 the city expelled its Jewish population as part of a wave of anti-Semitism, also seen in Spain and
Portugal. The second half of the 15th century is considered the start of Olomouc's golden age. It hosted several royal meetings, and
Matthias Corvinus was elected here as King of
Bohemia (in fact anti-king) by the estates in 1469. In 1479 two kings of Bohemia (
Vladislaus II and Matthias Corvinus) met here and concluded an agreement (
Peace of Olomouc of 1479) for splitting the country.
Modern era in 1757 Participating in the
Protestant Reformation, Moravia became mostly Protestant. During the
Thirty Years' War, in 1640 Olomouc was occupied by the
Swedes for eight years. They left the city in ruins, and as a result it lost its predominant place in Moravia, becoming second to
Brno. In 1740 the town was captured and briefly held by the
Prussians. Olomouc was fortified by
Maria Theresa during the wars with
Frederick the Great, who
besieged the city unsuccessfully for seven weeks in 1758. In 1848 Olomouc was the scene of the emperor
Ferdinand's abdication. Two years later, Austrian and German statesmen held a conference here called the
Punctation of Olmütz. At the conference, they agreed to restore the
German Confederation and
Prussia accepted leadership by the Austrians. In 1746 the first
learned society in the lands under control of the
Austrian Habsburgs, the
Societas eruditorum incognitorum in terris Austriacis, was founded in Olomouc to spread
Enlightenment ideas. Its monthly
Monatliche Auszüge was the first
scientific journal published in the Habsburg empire. Largely because of its ecclesiastical links to Austria,
Salzburg in particular, the city was influenced by
German culture since the
Middle Ages. Demographics before censuses can only be interpreted from other documents. The town's ecclesiastical constitution, the meetings of the Diet and the locally printed hymnal, were recorded in
Czech in the mid-16th and 17th centuries. The first treatise on music in Czech was published in Olomouc in the mid-16th century. The political and social changes that followed the Thirty Years' War increased the influence of courtly Habsburg and Austrian/German-language culture. The "Germanification" of the town likely resulted from the cosmopolitan nature of the city; as the cultural, administrative and religious centre of the region, it drew officials, musicians and traders from all over Europe. Despite these influences, Czech dominated, particularly in ecclesiastical publications throughout the 17th and 18th centuries. When the Austrian-born composer and musician Philip J. Rittler accepted a post at the
Wenceslas Cathedral in the latter 17th century, he felt it necessary to learn Czech. With the continued dominance of the Habsburgs and migration of ethnic Germans into the area, the use of Czech declined. By the 19th century, the number of ethnic Germans in the city were recorded as three times higher than the number of Czechs. After the
1848 revolution, the government rescinded its Jewish expulsion order of 1454. Jews returned to the city and, in 1897, built a
synagogue. The Jewish population reached 1,676 in 1900. , 1900s Olomouc retained its defensive city walls almost until the end of the 19th century. This suited the city council, because demolishing the walls would have allowed for expansion of the city and attracted more Czechs from neighbouring villages. The city council preferred Olomouc to be smaller and predominantly German. Greater expansion came after World War I and the establishment of
Czechoslovakia. In 1919 Olomouc annexed two neighbouring towns and 11 surrounding villages, gaining new space for additional growth and development. Serious tensions arose between ethnic Czechs and Germans during both world wars. During
World War II, the city was under
German occupation and most of the city's ethnic German residents sided with the
Nazis; the German-run city council renamed the main square (until then named after president
Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk) after
Adolf Hitler. World War II brought a rise in anti-semitism and attacks on the Jews that reflected what was happening in Germany. On
Kristallnacht (10 November 1938), townspeople destroyed the synagogue. In March 1939, city police arrested 800 Jewish men, and had some deported to the
Dachau concentration camp. During 1942–1943, ethnic Germans sent the remaining Jews to
Theresienstadt and other German concentration camps in
occupied Poland. Fewer than 300 of the city's Jews survived
the Holocaust. The Germans also established and operated a
Gestapo prison in the city, and a
forced labour camp in the Chválkovice district. After Olomouc was liberated, Czech residents took back the original name of the city square. When the retreating
German army passed through the city in the final weeks of the war, they shot at its 15th-century astronomical clock, leaving only a few pieces intact (these are held in the local museum). The city was restored to Czechoslovakia, although with a Soviet-installed communist regime with stayed in power until the
Fall of Communism in the 1980s. In the 1950s, the clock was reconstructed under the influence of Soviet government; it features a procession of
proletarians rather than saints. After the war, the government participated in the expulsion of ethnic Germans from the country, following the Allied leaders'
Potsdam Agreement, which redefined the Central European borders, although many of these people's families had lived for two centuries in the region. There were the statue of the first president T. G. Masaryk reconstructed as a symbol of come back of democracy on Masaryk street after "velvet revolution" in 1990. Its inner city is the third-largest
urban monument reservation in the country, after Prague. ==Demographics==