Where to Stay in Jihlava, Kraj Vysočina

What is Jihlava known for?

The square is lined with burgher houses at numbers 16, 18, 21, 25 and 57, and the Mincovna stands among them, the mint that once struck coin here. Churches crowd the streets behind it, above all the Church of Saint James the Greater, with the Church of the Holy Spirit, the Church of the Assumption and the minorite monastery in Jihlava close by. Jihlava Zoo fills an afternoon.

What are the main landmarks in Jihlava?

Towers mark the skyline. The Church of Saint James the Greater rises over the old streets, while the Church of the Holy Spirit, the Church of Saint John the Baptist and the Church of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross fill out the parish map. Two monasteries survive: the Dominican monastery in Jihlava and the minorite monastery in Jihlava.

Art hangs in the Vysočina Regional Gallery in Jihlava, history sits in the Muzeum Vysočiny, and the Dům Gustava Mahlera holds the city's musical thread. The Rozhledna na Šacberku gives the long view.

What is the history of Jihlava?

The charter dates from 1233. Mining brought the town its first wealth, and the Hornická naučná stezka traces the ground the diggings left behind on the Bohemian-Moravian Highlands above the Jihlava River. Coin followed the ore.

The Mincovna struck money for a town that sat astride the historical border of Moravia and Bohemia, and Masarykovo náměstí was laid out on a scale that still surprises. Walls went up around it, and the Naučná stezka Jihlavská pevnost follows what the fortifications left. Orders settled early.

The Dominican monastery in Jihlava and the minorite monastery in Jihlava took ground inside the walls, and the Church of Saint Ignatius of Loyola later brought another order's plan to the same streets. Brewing became a trade of its own, and the Pivovarská naučná stezka still walks visitors through where it was carried on. Music came later.

Gustav Mahler's name is kept at the Dům Gustava Mahlera, and the Naučná stezka Hudební osobnosti Jihlavy links him to the other musicians the city claims. The Vysočina Region made Jihlava its capital, and the Muzeum Vysočiny and the Vysočina Regional Gallery in Jihlava carry the region's collections.

Where is Jihlava?

Jihlava stands on the Bohemian-Moravian Highlands, the upland that gives the Vysočina Region its name. The Jihlava River cuts below the town, and the old boundary between Moravia and Bohemia runs through this upland country of woods, fields and scattered villages. Woods close in beyond the edge.

The Rozhledna na Šacberku looks out over all of it.

What is the climate of Jihlava?

The Bohemian-Moravian Highlands set the weather. Height keeps Jihlava cooler than the lowlands of Moravia through the year, with snow lying on the uplands well into spring and short, green summers along the Jihlava River. Frost arrives early.

Rain and cloud come with the hills, and the seasons turn sharply rather than gently.

How do you get to Jihlava?

Most arrivals cross the highlands first. The approach runs up through the woods and fields of the Vysočina Region before the streets narrow towards Masarykovo náměstí, where the square opens out and the old town begins in earnest. Jihlava sits on the historical border of Moravia and Bohemia, so routes between them have long passed through.

The Rozhledna na Šacberku sets out the whole town for anyone who climbs it.