Chrudim

Chrudim is a town in the Pardubice Region of the Czech Republic, about eight kilometres south of Pardubice on the Chrudimka River, in the Svitavy Uplands. It is the second largest town of its region, with roughly 24,000 inhabitants. The royal town was founded in 1276 by King Ottokar II on a route from Prague to Moravia, and the first written mention of the place dates to 1055, when Duke Bretislav I died there. Chrudim is best known for puppetry: it has a museum of puppetry culture and hosts the Loutkářská Chrudim festival, established in 1951 and described as the oldest continuous puppetry festival in the world. Its historic centre is a protected urban monument zone, built around the Resselovo náměstí square and the Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, and the town earned the nickname Athens of Eastern Bohemia.