Town Terezín  - Official website

Fortress of Terezín lies on flat fertile land 60 km north of Prague, near the fork of the Labe (Elbe) and Ohře (Eger) rivers. Emperor Joseph II of Austria founded it at the end of the 18th century as a robust fortress system to protect Bohemia from the northwest. The fortress was built in the era´s most modern style based on the French school of Meziéres.
The system's core is a Main Fortress containing a town, the Minor Fortress ahead of it, and a fortified tract between the old and the new Ohře. The entire fortified tract occupies 67 ha, not including an artificial 158 ha floodable basin. The eastern part of the city was built on the swamp land using oak piles and grids filled in with stone.
In June 1790, less than 10 years after groundbreaking, with project supervisor Klement Pellegrini present, the fort was declared warworthy.

Terezín as a town. The Imperial Settlement Patent of December 9, 1782 proclaimed Terezín a free royal town, but while never in a state of siege, the town was in fact subordinated to military needs. In 1888 its fortress statute was repealed.

Nazi occupation. Terezín´s most tragic chapter came during WW2 (1939-45). In 1940 Prague's Gestapo installed in Minor Fortress police prison. About 32.000 prisoners passed through the Minor Fortress between 1940 and 1945 of whom 2.500 were killed by hunger, disease, tyrannical guards and executions.
In 1941 the town of Terezin was changed by the Nazis to Jewish ghetto-transit camp. Until the end of the War more than 150.000 deportees passed through the camp, 35.000 of which died there.

Present. Since Czech army withdrawal in late 90´s Terezin undergoes complex restoration.