Bystřice (Frýdek-Místek District)


is a large village in Frýdek-Místek District, Moravian-Silesian Region of the Czech Republic. It has a population of around 5,300 and it is the second largest municipality in the Czech Republic without the town status. Poles make 29.7% of the population.

Etymology

The name is topographic in origin.

Geography

It lies between the Silesian and Moravian-Silesian Beskids mountain ranges, in the historical region of Cieszyn Silesia. The Hluchová River flows to the Olza River in the village.

History

It was first mentioned in a written document in 1523 as Bistrzicze. Politically it belonged then to the Duchy of Teschen, a fee of the Kingdom of Bohemia, which after 1526 became part of the Habsburg Monarchy.
After the 1540s Reformation prevailed in the Duchy of Teschen and a local Catholic church was taken over by Lutherans. Local Protestants built there a wooden church in 1587. It was taken from them in the region by a special commission and given back to the Roman Catholic Church on 21 March 1654. In spite of being bereft of place of worship many of the local inhabitants remained to be Lutherans. After issuing the Patent of Toleration in 1781 they subsequently organized a local Lutheran parish as one of over ten in the region. The Catholic church was dismantled in 1897. In the place of this wooden church was later built a current Exaltation of the Cross Catholic wooden church. Lutherans built a wooden church in 1782 and current bricked one in 1811-1817.
Settlers have lived mainly off farming and pastures. After the construction of Třinec Iron and Steel Works in 1839, some of villagers went there working as workers. Many traditional old wooden houses still remain in some parts of the village.
After Revolutions of 1848 in the Austrian Empire a modern municipal division was introduced in the re-established Austrian Silesia. The village as a municipality was subscribed to the political district of Cieszyn and the legal district of Jablunkov. According to the censuses conducted in 1880, 1890, 1900 and 1910 the population of the municipality grew from 1,933 in 1880 to 2,442 in 1910 with the majority being native Polish-speakers accompanied by German-speaking and Czech-speaking people. In terms of religion in 1910 the majority were Protestants, followed by Roman Catholics and Jews. The village was also traditionally inhabited by Cieszyn Vlachs, speaking Cieszyn Silesian dialect.
After World War I, fall of Austria-Hungary, Polish–Czechoslovak War and the division of Cieszyn Silesia in 1920, it became a part of Czechoslovakia. Following the Munich Agreement, in October 1938 together with the Zaolzie region it was annexed by Poland, administratively adjoined to Cieszyn County of Silesian Voivodeship. It was then annexed by Nazi Germany at the beginning of World War II. After the war it was restored to Czechoslovakia.

Notable people