Heřmanice (german: Hermsdorf) is a municipality and village in

Liberec District Liberec District ( cs, okres Liberec) is the district (''okres'') within the Liberec Region of Czech Republic. As its name implies, its administrative center is the city of Liberec. Complete list of municipalities Bílá - Bílý Kostel nad Ni ...

in the

Liberec Region Liberec Region ( cs, Liberecký kraj, german: Reichenberger Region, pl, Kraj liberecki) is an administrative unit ( Czech: ''kraj'') of the Czech Republic, located in the northernmost part of its historical region of Bohemia. It is named after ...

of the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...

. It has about 300 inhabitants.

Etymology

The original German name of the village was ''Hermannsdorff'', meaning "Herman's village". It was gradually distorted into ''Hermsdorf''. The Czech name was created by translation.

Geography

Heřmanice is located about north of

Liberec Liberec (; german: Reichenberg ) is a city in the Czech Republic. It has about 103,000 inhabitants and it is the fifth-largest city in the country. It lies on the Lusatian Neisse, in a basin surrounded by mountains. The city centre is well prese ...

, in a salient region of Frýdlant Hook on the border with

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

. The northern part of the municipal territory with the built-up area lies in the

Frýdlant Hills Frýdlant (; also known as Frýdlant v Čechách, german: Friedland in Böhmen) is a town in Liberec District in the Liberec Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 7,400 inhabitants. The town centre is well preserved and is protected by law ...

. The southern part lies in the

Jizera Mountains Jizera Mountains ( cz, Jizerské hory), or Izera Mountains ( pl, Góry Izerskie; german: Isergebirge), are part of the Western Sudetes on the border between the Czech Republic and Poland. The range got its name from the Jizera River, which rises a ...

and includes the highest point of Heřmanice, the hill Lysý vrch at above sea level. The Oleška Stream flows through the municipality.

History

The first written mention of Heřmanice is from 1381. There is an even older mention in the

Zittau Zittau ( hsb, Žitawa, dsb, Žytawa, pl, Żytawa, cs, Žitava, Upper Lusatian Dialect: ''Sitte''; from Slavic "'' rye''" (Upper Sorbian and Czech: ''žito'', Lower Sorbian: ''žyto'', Polish: ''żyto'')) is the southeasternmost city in the Ge ...

annals, but the date of 1375 is only an estimate. Heřmanice was then part of the

Frýdlant Frýdlant (; also known as Frýdlant v Čechách, german: Friedland in Böhmen) is a town in Liberec District in the Liberec Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 7,400 inhabitants. The town centre is well preserved and is protected by law ...

estate, owned by the Biberstein family until 1544. The Schwanitz family held the village from 1544 to 1668. In 1678, Heřmanice was again joined to the Frýdlant estate and was owned by the Clam-Gallas family. In 1900, a railway from Frýdlant to Zittau via Heřmanice was built. The railway was in service until 1976. In 1938, the municipality was annexed by

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

and administered as part of

Reichsgau Sudetenland The Reichsgau Sudetenland was an administrative division of Nazi Germany from 1939 to 1945. It comprised the northern part of the '' Sudetenland'' territory, which was annexed from Czechoslovakia according to the 30 September 1938 Munich Agreement ...

. After the

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, the German population was expelled and the number of inhabitants dropped. In 1960, Heřmanice merged with the neighbouring municipality of Dětřichov. From 1986 to 1990, it was an administrative part of

. Since 1 September 1990, it has been a separate municipality. The village was hit by floods in summer 2010. The whole infrastructure of the village was destroyed. Many houses were damaged, several houses were demolished. One woman died.

Demographics

Transport

There is a road border crossing with Poland ''Heřmanice /

Bogatynia Bogatynia (; German: ''Reichenau in Sachsen'') is a town in Zgorzelec County, Lower Silesian Voivodeship, in south-western Poland. As of December 2021, the town has a population of 16,460. Geography The municipal area forms Poland's "Turoszów p ...

''.

Sights

In Heřmanice there are several

half-timbered Timber framing (german: Holzfachwerk) and "post-and-beam" construction are traditional methods of building with heavy timbers, creating structures using squared-off and carefully fitted and joined timbers with joints secured by large woode ...

houses, built in the so-called Upper Lusatian style. A wooden observation tower was built in Heřmanice in 2012. It is high, has the shape of a tube topped by a dome, and 99 steps lead to the top.

Twin towns – sister cities

Heřmanice is twinned with: *

Pieńsk Pieńsk (german: Penzig) is a town in Zgorzelec County, Lower Silesian Voivodeship, in south-western Poland. It is the seat of the administrative district ( gmina) called Gmina Pieńsk, and stands on the east bank of the Lusatian Neisse river, ...

, Poland * Sobota (Lwówek Śląski), Poland

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hermanice (Liberec District) Villages in Liberec District