Kolín

Ptolemy's world map mentions Kolin - Budorgis in the 2nd century.[2] In the 12th and 13th-century German settlers were called in after the Germans leaving west during Migration and the colonization by Slavs. Kolín was founded by king Přemysl Otakar II in the 13th century, first mentioned in 1261. Later on, 1437, a castle was founded here. Between 1475 and 1488, Hynek ze Strážnic, a Renaissance writer and son of King George of Poděbrady, lived in the Kolín Castle.

The 1757 Battle of Kolin was fought during the Seven Years' War, and in 1944 a refinery in Kolin was bombed during the Oil Campaign of World War II. Zyklon B for Nazi concentration camps was produced there.

The historical center of the town has many gothic and baroque buildings. Most notable are the main market (Karls Square), the Jewish ghetto and synagogue, the very old and large Jewish cemetery, and St. Bartholomeus Church from the 13th century (a work of the architect Peter Parler).

• Jakub Krčín, 16th-century pond and dam constructer
• Jan Rosacius, 17th-century priest and writer
• Karel Leger, 19th-century poet
• Ludmila Dvořáková, operatic soprano
• Otokar Fischer (1883–1938), playwright, translator, poet and critic
• Josef Svatopluk Machar, 20th-century writer
• Jan Kubíček, constructivist painter and sculptor
• Bohdan Ulihrach, tennis player
• Václav Morávek, soldier and hero of anti-nazi rezistance
• Josef Sudek, photographer
• Frank Daniel, screenwriter, teacher, producer, and director
• Jean-Gaspard Deburau, Bohemian–French actor and mime
• František Kmoch, composer and conductor
• Vojen Wilhelm Cech (Colini), Czech-American surrealist painter, Honorary Citizen of Kolín[3]
• Jan Novák, Czech-American novelist and playwright
• Miloš Zeman, President of the Czech Republic
• Jennifer Dark, pornographic actress
• Levance Fields, basketball player
• Rabbi Josef Feder, Survivor of Auschwitz, Rabbi of Kolin then Chief Rabbi of Bohemia and Moravia
• Brothers Feuerstein, some of the foremost artillerists of Europe in mid 18th century, retained by Prince Liechtenstein in the modernization of the Austrian artillery in 1748.[4]

Kolín is twinned with:[5]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Kolín.

• Municipal website
• Kolín pictures