Pre-Cold War The history of glassmaking in the Jablonec region has been documented since 1548, when the Wander family founded the first glassworks in
Mšeno. Afterwards, settlers from the
Jizera Mountains began passing down the craft of glassmaking from generation to generation. According to a number of testimonies, Minkovice prisoners were forced to work in the Preciosa factory under inhuman conditions, suffering from lack of food, lack of breaks, unbearable heat, toxic work environment made worse by the lack of medical care, and they were constantly facing impossible work demands linked to threats of brutal punishment for failing to fulfill them, such as being held in concrete isolation cells for days and sometimes weeks. The profits of the Preciosa company under the Communist regime were thus due largely to the Communist prisoners' slave labour. After the
Velvet Revolution in 1989, in a less than transparent privatization process of the formerly state-owned enterprise, In 2005, Glass closures began being produced in Desna. In 2009, the Jablonex Group divisions Glass and Beads joined with Preciosa Group to form a new company: Preciosa Ornela Inc. Nowadays, Preciosa Group consists of the following companies: Preciosa Inc., Preciosa–Chandeliers Inc., Preciosa Figurines Ltd. and Preciosa Ornela Inc. ==Public activities==