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 Mlada (young) to distinguish it from
the older Boleslav, which became known in the 15th century as Stara
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 town 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 town's
population declined.
In the 17th and 18th centuries, Mlada Boleslav
was an important Jewish center. In this period, about one half of the
town's population was Jewish. In the 19th century (in fact, the period
of decline of the Jewish community), Mlada Boleslav was dubbed
"Jerusalem on Jizera". In 1634, Jacob Bashevi von Treuenberg (born 1580
in Verona, Italy), the first ennobled Jew in the Habsburg monarchy, was
buried on the Jewish cemetery in Mlada Boleslav.
In the 19th century
new prosperity came: the town became an important regional centre as new
schools, theatres, museums, and the Laurin & Klement (today Škoda)
automobile factory were founded. After the communist revolution in 1948,
the town suffered a mass decline, however it has been improving since
the 1990s as the factory is making it one of the richest Czech towns
