page_title: Mladá Boleslav
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Mladá Boleslav / History
caption_attribution_description: Mladá Boleslav
context_page_description: Mladá Boleslav is a statutory city in the north of the Czech Republic, on the left bank of the Jizera river about 50 kilometres northeast of Prague. It is the second biggest city in the Central Bohemian Region and a major centre of the Czech automotive industry. The city name abbreviation MB became eponymous for colloquial naming of Škoda cars as "embé".
context_section_description: Founded in the second half of the 10th century by King Boleslav II as a royal castle. Because there already was a castle known as Boleslav near Prague, this new castle was named Mladá (young) to distinguish it from the older Boleslav, which became known in the 15th century as Stará Boleslav (Old Boleslav). The town received partial city rights in 1334 and 1436, becoming an important site on the road from Prague to northern Bohemia, Lusatia, and Brandenburg. In the 16th century the city was a leading centre of the Unitas Fratrum / Unity of the Brethren / Moravian Church, hosting the Brethren's bishop, Renaissance church, and printing house. After being re-catholicized in the 17th century, the city's population declined.
  In the 17th and 18th centuries, Mladá Boleslav (called Bumsla by Jews) was an important Jewish center. In the 19th century (in fact, the period of decline of the Jewish community), Mladá Boleslav was dubbed "Jerusalem on Jizera". In 1634, Jacob Bassevi von Treuenberg (born 1580 in Verona, Italy), the first ennobled Jew in the Habsburg monarchy, was buried in the Jewish cemetery in Mladá Boleslav.
  In the 19th century new prosperity came: the city became an important regional centre as new schools, theatres, museums, and the Laurin & Klement (today Škoda) automobile factory were founded. Since the 1990s the factory has made it one of the richest and most prosperous Czech cities.
caption: Castle in Mladá Boleslav
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