Železný Brod

Železný Brod is a small town in the Jablonec nad Nisou District of the Liberec Region in the north of the Czech Republic, with roughly six thousand inhabitants. It lies on the Jizera River in the foothills of the Giant Mountains, about ten kilometres southeast of the district seat, and the town's highest point reaches 453 metres above sea level. The name means iron ford in Czech: the settlement was first called simply Brod, meaning ford, and the word for iron was added in the 17th century in reference to the mining and processing of iron ore in the area. The town was probably founded in the 11th or 12th century and was probably raised to a town in the 13th century; its first written mention dates from 1352. Fire destroyed it in 1468, and in 1501 King Vladislaus II restored its rights and granted its coat of arms. Glassmaking and costume jewellery became the local trades from the late 19th century, and the first Czech professional glassmaking school opened here in 1920. The Trávníky district is protected as a village monument reservation for its preserved folk architecture.