Brněnec () is a municipality and village in

Svitavy District Svitavy District () is a district in the Pardubice Region of the Czech Republic. Its capital is the town of Svitavy. Administrative division Svitavy District is divided into four administrative districts of municipalities with extended competenc ...

in the

Pardubice Region Pardubice Region () is an administrative unit () of the Czech Republic, located mainly in the eastern part of its historical region of Bohemia, with a small part in northwestern Moravia. It is named after its capital Pardubice. As an administrat ...

of the

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

. It has about 1,300 inhabitants.

Administrative division

Brněnec consists of four municipal parts (in brackets population according to the 2021 census): *Brněnec (391) *Chrastová Lhota (68) *Moravská Chrastová (728) *Podlesí (24)

Geography

Brněnec is located about south of

Svitavy Svitavy (; ) is a town in Svitavy District in the Pardubice Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 16,000 inhabitants. It is the birthplace of Oskar Schindler and the centre of the Czech Esperanto movement. The historic town centre is well pr ...

and north of

Brno Brno ( , ; ) is a Statutory city (Czech Republic), city in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. Located at the confluence of the Svitava (river), Svitava and Svratka (river), Svratka rivers, Brno has about 403,000 inhabitants, making ...

. It lies in the

Svitavy Uplands The Svitavy Uplands or Svitavy Hills () are uplands and a geomorphological mesoregion of the Czech Republic. It is located in the Pardubice Region and it belongs to the largest mesoregions in the country. Geomorphology The Svitavy Uplands is a ...

. The highest point is at above sea level. The municipality is situated at the confluence of the Svitava River and the stream Chrastovský potok; the built-up area is located in the valleys of these two watercourses. The Svitava River forms here the historical border between

Bohemia Bohemia ( ; ; ) is the westernmost and largest historical region of the Czech Republic. In a narrow, geographic sense, it roughly encompasses the territories of present-day Czechia that fall within the Elbe River's drainage basin, but historic ...

and

Moravia Moravia ( ; ) is a historical region in the eastern Czech Republic, roughly encompassing its territory within the Danube River's drainage basin. It is one of three historical Czech lands, with Bohemia and Czech Silesia. The medieval and early ...

History

Next to an old trade route, the settlement of Moravská Chrastová was founded after 1200 by monks from the monastery in

Litomyšl Litomyšl (; ) is a town in Svitavy District in the Pardubice Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 10,000 inhabitants. It is a former bishopric and Latin Catholic titular see. Litomyšl is known for the château-type castle complex of the Lit ...

. Moravská Chrastová was first mentioned in a document from 1323. The first written mention of Brněnec is in the act of partition of the

Svojanov Svojanov is a market town in Svitavy District in the Pardubice Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 400 inhabitants. Administrative division Svojanov consists of six municipal parts (in brackets population according to the 2021 census): *Sv ...

estate from 1557. Until the 18th century, it was a part of Bělá nad Svitavou. After the Löw-Beer family founded here a textile factory, the importance of Brněnec grew. In 1938, the municipality was annexed by

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...

and administered as part of the

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

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, the Germans were expelled.

Schindler factory

The Löw-Beer Jewish family founded a textile producing company in the 1810s, and in 1855 rebuilt an old paper mill in Brněnec into the textile factory. In 1938, it was taken over by Germans. In 1944,

Oskar Schindler Oskar Schindler (; 28 April 1908 – 9 October 1974) was a German industrialist, humanitarian, and member of the Nazi Party who is credited with saving the lives of 1,200 Jews during the Holocaust by employing them in his enamelware and amm ...

relocated his German Enamelware Factory and the associated prison camp of 1,200 Jewish forced labourers from

Kraków , officially the Royal Capital City of Kraków, is the List of cities and towns in Poland, second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city has a population of 804,237 ...

to a munitions factory acquired by him in Brněnec. The Jewish workforce thus escaped transport to the

extermination camps Nazi Germany used six extermination camps (), also called death camps (), or killing centers (), in Central Europe, primarily in occupied Poland, during World War II to systematically murder over 2.7 million peoplemostly Jewsin the Holocau ...

and was liberated along with the rest of the municipality on 10 May 1945 by the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...

, after the factory had been fully operational for seven months.

Demographics

Transport

The I/43 road (part of the European route E461) from Brno to Svitavy passes through the municipality. Moravská Chrastová is located on the railway line heading from Brno to

Česká Třebová Česká Třebová (; ) is a town in Ústí nad Orlicí District in the Pardubice Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 15,000 inhabitants. The historic town centre is well preserved and is protected as an Cultural monument (Czech Republic)#Mon ...

Sights

The most important monument is the Evangelical church in Moravská Chrastová. It was built in the Arts and Crafts style in 1889. Other sights include the Chapel of Saint Isidore in Moravská Chrastová from 1855 and a belfry in Brněnec. In 2025, the Museum of Survivors was opened in Brněnec. The opening date was chosen to coincide with the celebrations marking eighty years since the end of World War II.

Notable people

* František Bartoš (1905–1973), composer, music critic and musicologist *

(1908–1974), German industrialist and humanitarian; worked here

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Brnenec Villages in Svitavy District