Meziboří

Meziboří (until 1957 Šenbach; Schönbach) is a town in Most District in the Ústí nad Labem Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 4,600 inhabitants. It was originally a small village, expanded in the 1950s to a town.

Etymology
The initial German name Schönbach means 'beautiful stream'. The German name was Czechized as Šenbach. The modern name Meziboří means "the area between pine forests".

Geography
Meziboří is located about 12 km north of Most. The entire municipal territory lies in the Ore Mountains. The highest point is the mountain Černý vrch at 889 m above sea level.

History
The first written mention of Šenbach is from 1398. For centuries, the inhabitants have subsisted on agriculture, especially the cultivation of rye, oats, potatoes, cattle grazing and forestry. It remained so even at the beginning of industrialization in the second half of the 19th century. The number of inhabitants in the surrounding villages, which depended on coal mining, increased, but in Šenbach the population did not change. Fields on mountain slopes surrounded by forests on all sides could not feed more people.

The development of Šenbach was determined by an organized recruitment program for apprentices for heavy industries, announced in 1949 by President Klement Gottwald. In September 1950, the first dormitory for 360 mining apprentices was opened, and in January 1951, a dormitory was opened for another 360 apprentices at the chemical school. In 1952, a girls' apprentice dormitory for miners and excavators was opened. At that time, the town's population reached two thousand. Between 1953 and 1968, a housing estate with fifteen hundred flats was being built. Most of the houses of the old village was demolished and only 11 are preserved to this day. In 1957, the town was renamed Meziboří.

Transport
There are no railways or major roads passing through the municipality.

Sport
In Meziboří is a ski resport, operated by the town.

Sights
There are no protected cultural monuments in the town.

Twin towns – sister cities
Meziboří is twinned with:
 * 🇩🇪 Sayda, Germany
 * 🇮🇹 Sogliano al Rubicone, Italy