The oldest known settlements around Austerlitz date back to Palaeolithic, 40,000 years
B.C., as prooved by archaelogical findings from several locations.
The importance of the Austerlitz area during prehistoric times is underlined by numerous
findings of grave-mounds and burials of various non-Slavonic ethnic groups (Celts, for
example) dating from the 2nd century B.C. to the 6th century A.C.
The intensive trade activity in this area is documented by the discovery of a Roman
treasure and findings of Roman coins which bear the effigies of Caesars Neron, Hadrian,
Gordian, Konstantin, Theodosius II. and Julius Miorian.
The arrival of Slavonic tribes dates back to the 8th to 10th centuries. According to the
legend preserved by the local Jewish community, the Hungarians who, in the 10th century,
undertook numerous attacks on the Moravian territory, built a military settlement near
today Austerlitz and named it "Fehervar" - The White Town.
At the end of the 12th century markgrave Vladislav I. Jindrich (Henry) assigned this
territory to the Order of the German Knights who gradually built here one of their
economically most important settlements. The Order controlled their properties for two
hundred years, until 1410.
Austerlitz was granted city rights by the king Vaclav IV. of the Luxemburgs in 1416. The
oldest written record of the town, however, comes from 1237. In 1987, 750th anniversary of
this first written record was celebrated.
Austerlitz still keeps its oldest heraldic rights in the Czech lands. From the heraldic
point of view, Austeriltz's coat-of-arms is unique for its depicting a figure of the Holy
Roman Emperor together with two territorial symbols (Bohemia and Moravia).
The town was gradually constituted of the Christian and the Jewish communities. In the
annals of the local Jewish community it is recorded that Jewish scholars from Austerlitz
had contacts with the famous rabbinic school in Barcelona as early as in the first half of
the 13th century. As in many other places in Europe, coming to power of the Nazism in
Germany and an outbreak of the Second World War brought a tragic end to the centuries old
Jewish community in Austerlitz. The only reminder of its existence are three Jewish
cemeteries and a synagogue.
Between 1509 and 1919 Austerlitz belonged to the Kounics, an old Czech klan which gave
to Europe several important diplomats and statesmen. The best known was Vaclav Antonin
Dominik, Prince Kounic-Rietberg (1711-1794), a state minister and a chancellor to the
Emperess Mary Teresa, Joseph II., Leopold II., and the Emperor Francis II. He was first to
suggest the treaty of alliance between France and the Habsburk Monarchy (1756).
Due to religious tolerance of the Kounics about ten religious groups and sects settled
down in Austerlitz in the 16th century, the most important of which were so-called
"new christians" or "habans" who came to Moravia from Switzerland and
Tyrolia in 1528. There was about a hundred of them and their descendants lived in
Austerlitz for almost a century and played an active role in then fast economic
development of Austerlitz. One of the printers who created the Bible of Kralice, Zacharias
Solin, came from Austerlitz.
Austerlitz entered the world history through the Battle of three Emperors which took
place on the fields around the town on December 2, 1805. Before the battle, the Russian
Tzar Alexander I. and the Austrian Emperor Francis I. stayed at the Austerlitz chateau.
After the battle, this privilege was ceded to Napoleon I. who spent four nights here and
wrote here his notorious "after the battle" speech.
