Boskovice

Boskovice is a town in Blansko District in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic, known in German as Boskowitz. It has about 12,000 inhabitants and lies about 33 kilometres north of Brno, on the border of the Boskovice Furrow and the Drahany Highlands, with the Boskovice Reservoir on the river Bělá within its territory. It was probably founded in the thirteenth century as a market village; the first written mention is from 1222, and Maria Theresa promoted it to a town during her reign. For centuries it had one of the largest Jewish communities in Moravia, with a closed ghetto from 1727 and more than 1,800 Jewish residents at the peak in 1857, and the Jewish quarter, a Baroque synagogue and a cemetery of about 2,400 tombs survive. The historic centre, the Jewish quarter, the Empire castle complex and the Gothic castle ruin are protected as an urban monument zone. The town has long been known for the Minerva sewing machine company, founded in 1881, and since 1993 it has hosted the Boskovice Festival for the Jewish Quarter.