Sedlčany

Sedlčany (Seltschan) is a town in Příbram District in the Central Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 6,800 inhabitants.

Administrative parts
The villages of Doubravice, Hradišťko, Libíň, Oříkov, Sestrouň, Solopysky, Třebnice, Vítěž and Zberaz are administrative parts of Sedlčany.

Geography
Sedlčany is located about 30 km east of Příbram and 38 km south of Prague. It lies in the Benešov Uplands. The highest point is a hill at 519 m above sea level. The town is situated on the Mastník River, a tributary of the Vltava. On the Mastník is built the Sedlčany Retention Reservoir.

History
The first written mention of Sedlčany is from 1294, when Sedlčany already held market rights. Then held by the Vítkovci Neuhaus (Hradec) family, the estates were given in pawn to the House of Rosenberg by King John of Bohemia in 1337. The citizens joined the Hussite movement as vassals of Oldřich II of Rosenberg and during the Hussite Wars the town temporarily was controlled by radical Taborites. Thanks to Oldřich II of Rosenberg, Sedlčany gained town privileges in 1418.

In 1475, the noble Lobkowicz family took over Sedlčany in exchange for Rožmberk Castle, given in pawn by the Bohemian chamberlain John II of Rosenberg in 1464. The Rosenbergs regained the town, but in 1580, William of Rosenberg relinquished it to his custodian Jakub Krčín. Upon his death in 1604 the last Rosenberg scion Peter Vok sold Sedlčany to the Bohemian chancellor Zdeněk Vojtěch Popel of Lobkowicz, who administered stern Counter-Reformation measures to its citizens. The town was devastated by Swedish troops during the Thirty Years' War and did not recover until the mid 18th century.

From 1804, the town was part of the Austrian Empire and after the Compromise of 1867 belonged to the Cisleithanian half of Austria-Hungary. The town was the administrative seat of a district of the same name, one of the 94 Bezirkshauptmannschaften in Bohemia. Sedlčany developed to a centre of textile industry, the local economy was further promoted when the town received access to the railway line to Olbramovice in 1894. Under the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia the nearby SS-Truppenübungsplatz Böhmen was laid out from 1941, whereby numerous villages were cleared and the inhabitants expelled.

Economy
For many decades, Sedlčany was famous for its production of Hermelín cheese. However, the production was moved by the dairy's owner from Sedlčany to Přibyslav in 2019. The Sedlčanský hermelín brand name, however, remained.

Transport
The I/18 road (the section from Příbram to Votice) passes through the town.

Sedlčany is the terminus of a railway line from Benešov.

Sights
The main landmark of Sedlčany and the oldest building is the Church of Saint Martin. The original Romanesque church, which was as old as the town, was completely rebuilt in the Gothic style in 1374. A tower with Romanesque-Gothic windows has been preserved from the original church. The building was originally fortified. A free-standing Renaissance bell tower belongs to the church. The interior decoration includes an extensive fresco of the Adoration of the Three Kings.

The Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary is situated in the northern part of the town. It was built in the early Baroque style in 1732–1735.

The Červený Hrádek Castle has a Gothic core from the turn of the 13th and 14th centuries. The castle was rebuil in the late Gothic and Baroque styles. Its present form is a result of the neo-Gothic modification in 1894–1895 according to the architect Jan Kotěra. The castle is occasionally open for cultural events. Next to the castle is a freely accessible park.

The Třebnice Castle is located in the village of Třebnice. It was originally a medieval fortress, rebuilt in the Baroque and Neo-Renaissance styles. It is known as the birthplace of Joseph Radetzky von Radetz. It was originally a large castle complex with a park, but as a result of insensitive changes in the 1970s, when the castle was used as a forestry school, the castle remained detached from the other buildings and the park was devalued. Today, the castle building is unused.

Notable people

 * Joseph Radetzky von Radetz (1766–1858), field marshal
 * Karel Baxa (1863–1938), mayor of Prague
 * Jindřiška Flajšhansová (1868–1931), writer and women's rights activist

Twin towns – sister cities
Sedlčany is twinned with:
 * 🇫🇷 Taverny, France
 * 🇵🇱 Wągrowiec County, Poland