Moneta
Registered: August 2005
Location: Arizona USA
Posts: 2,365
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An issue in commemoration the 700th Year of Jihlava Mining Privileges. Here the figure of a hooded miner emerges from a mine on a ladder, he carries an oil lamp. Designed by O. Spaniel.
The city's German name, Iglau, is derived from the German word for hedgehog, Igel, hence the hedgehog on the coat of arms. According to legend, silver was mined in Iglau as early as 799. King Ottokar I established a mint, and Iglau was granted extensive privileges already during these early times.
An old Slavic settlement upon a ford was moved to a nearby hill where the mining town was founded (ca. 1240) by king Wenceslaus I. In the Middle Ages the town was inhabited mostly by Germans (mostly from Northern Bavaria and Upper Saxony). Medieval mines surrounded by mining settlements were localized outside the walls of the medieval town (named Staré Hory).
In the era of the Hussite Wars, Jihlava remained a Catholic stronghold and managed to resist a number of sieges. Later at Jihlava, on 5 July 1436, a treaty was made with the Hussites, whereby the emperor Sigismund was acknowledged king of Bohemia. A marble relief near the town marks the spot where Ferdinand I, in 1527, swore fidelity to the Bohemian estates. [Wikipedia]
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