History of the city

 

 

The first written reference about Spořice dates 1281. It is a deed of property transfer of the Order of the German Knights. in Chomutov. The name of "Spořice" itself point out  to the Slavonic foundation of the village. There are two theories on its formation. The first says that the name arose from the personal name Spor, the second one derives it from the word "sporý" (small,strong). Whatever origin as the name might have been derived from, it is sure to have gone through many changes since it was founded. In 1281 the village was called Sporicz, in 1497 Sparitz,  1511 Schporicz,  1563 Sparicz,  1571 the village Sporitze, the chateau and town Chomutow,  1587 to Chomutow belonged the village Sparycz, 1606  Sporycz,  1654 Sporžicz. From half 16th up to the end of 17th century it had a Czech name, from 18th century a German name (Sporitz) again. In 1847 it had also a Czech name  - Spořice.

Neither an origin of the name of the village, nor its founder is known. Načerad or his son Bedřich, settled that times in not far away Chomutov are most likely to be founders. The village Spořice was founded as early as in the early Middle Ages - in 12th to 13th century. Those days it was governed by the college of the Order of German Knights of Chomutov as part of an original gift from Bedřicha from Chomutov in 1252. In 1418  Spořice together with Chomutov became one of the pledge of Wenceslas IVth for the commander of the royal troops Mikuláš Chudý from Lobkovice, as a compensation for money that he had lost in king´s service. Subsequently it was brought under government of  the family of Weitmíle, that arranged in 1488 sale of the Chomutov dominion.

       From 1468 to 1560 the family of Weitmíle - Beneš and his son Jan were rule holders . The St Bartholomew church was rebuilt during their rule. In 1560 it was Ferdinand Hapsburg who bought the dominion of Chomutov and remained its holder until 1571. In 1570 brothers Jan, Ladislav, Kryštof and Šebestián from Weitmíle at Chomutov confirmed  for ever the right of succession for the inhabitants of Chomutov, Spořice, Horní Ves, Michanice and Černovice.

        Following owners of Spořice were the archduke Ferdinand Tyrolese, Bohuslav Felix of Hasistein from Lobkovice and his son Bohuslav Jáchym Hasistein of Lobkovice. In those times Spořice "was affected " by s.c witchery trials, during which several persons were burnt at the stake. In 1588 it was Boleslav Jiří Popel of Lobkovice who gained the dominion in exchange for Mladá Boleslav. He founded in Chomutov the Jesuit college and in 1591 he donated Spořice to the Jesuit Order. In 1594 the emperor let Popel´s property confiscate and bring under administration of the King´s  Chamber. This year the village, together with Údlice, Nezabylice, Jirkov, Hora St. Catherine and Červený Hrádek with Blatno were sold to the burgrave of the region of Hradec Králové Adam Hrzán of Harasov. The village suffered extensive damage during the Thirty Years´War. In 1660 the village was gained by the earl Jan Hrzán of Harasov. Since then Spořice was part of the dominion of Červený Hradec until 1848. In 1683 the Black Death struck the village, resulting in death of most population. Seven years later was built up here as a reminder of the victims of the tragedy. In 1695 a new school was built in the village.

       In 1707 the prince Jáchym of Lichtenstein became a new owner of dominion having bought it from Zikmund Hrzán of Harasov. Spořice numbered those times about 65 occupied houses, faced however wrongly run estate. After death of Jáchym dominion was bequeathed in 1724 to his younger daughter Dominique´s husband Jindřich of Auersperk. Spořice was managed by two more generations of the house of Auersperks (Jiří and Jan Adam), until it was at last in 1771 sold to Jan Alexander Rothenhan at 1 000 000 florins.

       During Napoleon´s wars the village suffered extensive damage. First it was in 1809 at invasion of estphalian troops, for the second time in 1813, when the whole surrounding was plundered by Austrian, Russian and Prussian detachments.

       In 1850 the villages became independent self-governed units. Since then own local council of Spořice started its work and the lords of the manor of Červený Hradec could not represent village´s interests as it was until now.

        In 1862 broke out epidemic of cholera in Spořice. After it has coped with this problem a period of changes started for Spořice. Shortly before 1870 were discovered brown coal deposits south and westwards, right below the village was discovered a china clay deposit. Based on these discoveries mining was started up. Relating to mining there was built in 1870 a main railway station Chomutov with large railway workshops around the cadastre of Spořice. 4 railway lines thus crossed the cadastre of the village. More and more inhabitants used to gain work on the railway and in factories of Chomutov. By end of 19th century there lived only 3% Czechs in Spořice, due to inflow of railway workers their number started however to rise ( 1921 to 9%). During an economic crisis some mines were closed (e.g. mines "Anna" and "Ludvík"). Since 1877 on a three-class school was established, in 1900 a new school building was built up, which is operated up to now. End of 19th century was a period of associations in Spořice. A number of clubs were established here during a few years, such as Voluntary firemen club (1889), "Agricultural club" (1893), "Savings bank and loan cashier´s offices club" (1898) and "Associacion of German population in Czechia " (1899).

       After an independent country Czechoslovakia  was established, Spořice became one of the first villages in district Chomutov, which had a Czech school. This school arose in 1919, first as one-class, then as early as one year later it was extent to a double-class school. It was at last in 1938 violently broke off.

        In 1938 the village became part of Sudeten annexed to the German Empire. Most Czechs rather left the village, some however remained throughout the war. In 1941 here was established a prison camp for French, English and Greek prisoners of war. Since 1943 down to  1945 the village was administratively connected with Chomutov. At the end of the World War II ( 17th and 19th April 1945) Spořice was bombed by American and British aircrafts. This was targeted to Poldi steelworks (latter ironworks Chomutov). 32 houses were destroyed and additional 22 severely damaged thereby. 107 people perished. 5th May 1945 prisoners of the German concentration camps, determined for Terezín, were transported to Spořice. They were placed in some local barns, where some of them died of starvation and exhaustion, some were shot. The Red Army came to Spořice on 9th May 1945. A takeover of the village by the Czechoslovak administration was noticed shortly after then, followed by "resettlement" of the village by the Czech citizens.

        In the period 1956 - 1960 Černovice was annexed to Spořice. Černovice turned however independent again in the years 1965 - 1970. In 1974 JZD Spořice (a cooperative farm) – founded in the 50ies) fused with JZD Droužkovice, Chomutov, Krbice a Údlice. Krbice was abolished due to progressing mining activities in 1983 and its cadastre was administratively transferred under Spořice. In 1995 a local program on restoration of the village was approved.

       Spořice has over centuries developed from a nearly exclusively agricultural village to a housing-estate for employees of industrial plants and railway service, with a number of private firms in the sphere of services, business and construction industry.

 

 

References:  Pachner, J., Brand, R.: Spořice - Z historie obce. Chomutov 1998 

 Binterová, Z.: Zaniklé obce Chomutovska. Chomutov 1995

 Kotyška, V.: Úplný místopisný slovník království Českého. Praha 1895

 Blažíček, J.: Čítanka ke středověkým dějinám chomutovského okresu. Chomutov 1961