1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Gitschin

GITSCHIN (Czech Jičin), a town of Bohemia, Austria, 65 m. N.E. of Prague by rail. Pop. (1900) 9790, mostly Czech. The parish church was begun by Wallenstein after the model of the pilgrims’ church of Santiago de Compostela in Spain, but not completed till 1655. The castle, which stands next to the church, was built by Wallenstein and finished in 1630. It was here that the emperor Francis I. of Austria signed the treaty of 1813 by which he threw in his lot with the Allies against Napoleon. Wallenstein was interred at the neighbouring Carthusian monastery, but in 1639 the head and right hand were taken by General Banér to Sweden, and in 1702 the other remains were removed by Count Vincent of Waldstein to his hereditary burying ground at Münchengrätz. Gitschin was originally the village of Zidiněves and received its present name when it was raised to the dignity of a town by Wenceslaus II. in 1302. The place belonged to various noble Bohemian families, and in the 17th century came into the hands of Wallenstein, who made it the capital of the duchy of Friedland and did much to improve and extend it. His murder, and the miseries of the Thirty Years’ War, brought it very low; and it passed through several hands before it was bought by Prince Trauttmannsdorf, to whose family it still belongs. On the 29th of June 1866 the Prussians gained here a great victory over the Austrians. This victory made possible the junction of the first and second Prussian army corps, and had as an ultimate result the Austrian defeat at Königgrätz.