Liberec is situated in a valley between the Jizera Mountains and the Jested Ridge. The Nisa River runs through it. The Town Hall lies 373m above sea level. The town has a population of about 100,000 inhabitants and occupies an area of nearly 115 square km.
             From its foundation (the first written report about the village, concerning paying elevenses to the Pope, comes from 1352), Liberec was gradually developing as a trade and crafts centre of regional importance. When the house of Biberstein died out, the Liberec manor was bought by the Redern family in 1558. Thanks to this purchase, Liberec started to change its parochial character. It gained the status of a town in 1577. First linen and dealers and drapers settled here.
             First stone buildings- the Castle, the Church of St. Anthony and the renaissance Town Hall (pulled down in 1893) grew up among wooden houses. Albrecht of Wallenstein continued in the Redern tradition. He founded the New Town and supported the further development of textile crafts. The ground plan of the Sokolovske Square and timbered houses in Vetrna Street remind us of Albrecht's age even today. The sufferings of the Thirty Year's War reflected in Liberec only after his death, when the Swedish and imperial troops came here in turn.
             The order prohibiting construction of wooden houses in 1807 led to the rapid rebuilding of the town centre. Also the road connection with the rest of the world improved in the first half of the 19th century and a railway was introduced here in 1859. Liberec was already the second most populous town in Bohemia. Its importance was further elevated by a special statue from 1850 and by the fact that it became a seat of higher state offices and institutions. Economic power was represented by Trade and Commercial Chamber, cultural and social importance was intensified by the existence of the theatre (since 1820) and by the activity of various associations. Great attention was paid to th...