The villages of Jelenice, Klokočov, Nové Těchanovice, Podhradí, Prostřední Dvůr, Lhotka and Zálužné are administrative parts of Vítkov. Jelenice forms an exclave of the municipal territory.
Geography
Vítkov is located about 20 kilometres (12 mi) southwest of Opava and 33 km (21 mi) west of Ostrava. It lies in the Nízký Jeseník range. The highest point is the hill Horka with an altitude of 603 m (1,978 ft). The Moravice River forms the northern municipal border.
History
The first written mention of Vítkov is from 1301. The town and the Vikštejn Castle were founded by Vítek of Kravaře in the second half of the 13th century. In the following centuries, the town often changed owners, who were among the lower nobles. In 1713–1714, the then owner of the Vítkov estate, Wipplar of Ulschitz had built a Baroque mansion. The Vikštejn Castle (today outside of municipal territory of Vítkov) was abandoned in 1776 and became a ruin.[2]
The inhabitants subsisted mainly on cloth and linen crafts and agriculture. During the industrialisation in the second half of the 19th century, several textile factories were established. Gloves, ribbons and silk products were made here.[2]
According to the Austrian census of 1910 the town had 3,570 inhabitants, almost all of them were German-speaking. Most populous religious group were Roman Catholics with 3,513 (98.4%).[3]
In 1938, Vítkov was annexed by Nazi Germany and administered as part of Reichsgau Sudetenland. After the World War II, the German population was expelled and the town was resettled by Czechs.[2]
On 19 April 2009, an arson attack with three molotov cocktails thrown on house inhabited by a Roma family happened here.
^Mommsen, Hans; Kováč, Dušan; Malíř, Jiří (2001). "Im Widerstreit der Selbstbestimmungsansprüche: vom Habsburgerstaat zur Tschechoslowakei–die Deutschen der böhmischen Länder 1918 bis 1919". Der Erste Weltkrieg und die Beziehungen zwischen Tschechen, Slowaken und Deutschen (in German). Klartext. p. 201. ISBN3-88474-951-X.
