Rýmařov (; ) is a town in Bruntál District in the Moravian-Silesian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 8,000 inhabitants. The historic town centre is well preserved and is protected by law as an urban monument zone. Administrative parts Villages of Edrovice, Harrachov, Jamartice, Janovice, Ondřejov and Stránské are administrative parts of Rýmařov. Geography Rýmařov lies about southwest of Bruntál and about north of Olomouc. It is located in the Nízký Jeseník mountain range, at the confluence of the Podolský Stream with several other small streams. The Podolský Creek is the right tributary of the Moravice, which forms the eastern municipal border. History The first settlement was established in the site of Rýmařov in the early 13th century by Czech colonists, but around 1250 it was destroyed. It was renewed by German colonists in the second half of the 13th century. The first written mention of Rýmařov is from 1351. After 1350, a wooden fortress was built. In 1406, the village was promoted to a town. The great development of Rýmařov and the whole region occurred with the mining of iron ore. Gold, silver with lead, copper and later zinc were also mined here. In 1474, the town was looted by Hungarian army. In the 16th century, Rýmařov prospered and developed, the hammer mills brought wealth to the town. Lutheranism began to prevail among the inhabitants. In 1583 the estate was bought by the Tyrolean aristocratic Hoffmann of Grünbüchl family, who took care of the town and developed education and forestry. Prosperity ended with the Thirty Years' War. The town was occupied by the army under Lennart Torstensson in 1643–1650 and remained depopulated and poor after the army left. Re-Catholicization took place after the war. In the second half of the 17th century, the town was threatened by the Northern Moravia witch trials, but in the end they did not bring any loss of life. In 1721 the estate was bought from the Teutonic Order by the Harrach family, which became a new impetus for development. The Harrachs restored forestry, mines and smelters. In the first half of the 19th century, modern flax and cotton processing factories were established in and around the town. In 1878, the railway was opened. Until 1918, Römerstadt was part of the Austrian monarchy (Austria side after the compromise of 1867), head of the district of the same name, one of the 34