Louny (Bohemia)

In the midst of the beautiful Central Bohemian Uplands, early settlements occupied this site on the river Ohre for many centuries. The first town was  called Redintuinum in the 2nd century CE. In the 12/13th century Germans resettled again. The first known written record dates from 1115. The original name was Luna, which is retained in the name of a local park, Pramen Luna, and accounts for the Moon as part of the town’s emblem. The town developed and expanded during the reign of Ottokar I of Bohemia. The old town had two city gates and eight small gateways facing to the north and south.  The town itself was created by the main square, where the annual markets were hold and the fine network of smaller streets and rues. The city walls and gates were in the years rebuilt and raised, later there were bastions built for the better town protection.

As a result of very active trade Louny was one of the most important towns of the Czech kingdom in the 14^th century. In the time of the Hussite wars Louny signed the military union together with Zatec and Slany, which made them stronger and opened the chance to conquer many villages, the properties of local monasteries. After the great fire of the historical center and both of suburbs in 1517, the town was rebuilt in very fast and modern way – in the late gothic. This time we call the “golden times” in medieval Louny. In 16^th century the church of St. Nicholas was built by the famous architect Benedikt Rejt, the designer of the church of St. Barbara in Kutná Hora and Vladislav Hall in Prague. Nowadays the  church is open for general public and it is the national monument.

The town lies on a railway junction and a factory for overhauling railway engines and rolling stock was established in 1873 which became a major employer and contributed to the town’s expansion during the early 20th century.

Other industries include a brewery (from the hops which are grown in the region) and a factory making porcelain electrical insulators for power cables, etc. The town’s architecture was formed mainly in the 19th and 20th centuries when many old buildings were torn down.

Jews first recorded here in 1^st half 14^th C, a prayer room existed in the early 15^th C. Jews were expelled from the town in 1542. Only one or two Jewish families lived here in 17^th to mid 19^th C. The prayer room and cemetery (dated from 1680) were used by Jews in the area. A new Jewish community began in 1860 and a new synagogue was built in 1870 in the ‘Moorish’ style.

Since 1967 the synagogue has been used as an archives depository.

The cemetery is 1 km SE of the synagogue

People

Rabbi Isak HaCohen Frankl and his family lived here in 1870 and it is where his son was born. Max and Fanni Frankl opened their store here and it is where Frantisek, Ruja, Zdenka and Maria were born at the very end of 19^th C.

Max Frankl is buried in cemetery.