Trutnov (German: Trautenau) is a town in the Hradec Králové Region in northeastern Bohemia, on the border with Poland. It lies in the Krkonoše foothills on the River Úpa. It has about 31,000 inhabitants and has an area of 10,336 hectares. It is the 35th largest city in the Czech Republic and the 13th largest by cadastral area. The historic core of the city is an urban conservation area. Trutnov is an important road and railway junction, connecting Central and Northeast Bohemia with Poland and Silesia.

Evidence of the oldest settlement of Trutnov are archaeological finds from 8000 BCE, from the late Paleolithic period. However, the establishment of real settlements came only much later, due to the impenetrability of the surrounding environment. In the 12th century, the entire border area formed a wide dense woodland with steep mountains and valley swamps. 

After 1110, an important trade route connecting Silesia with Bohemia was established here by the Poles along the Elbe River. In the place where the river was crossed by the Úpa River (in today's Upper Old Town), the Slavonic settlement of Úpa was founded in the 12th century. Towards the end of the 12th century, another Slavonic settlement was built and in the 13th century, a water castle was built on one of the river islands, which later became the core of the town. 

However, the location of the town was not idea. The area was often affected by floods, and the trade route was relocated in the 13th century. That is why the original village of Úpa lost its importance and around 1250 the settlement center was moved to the hill, into the area of today's historical center of Trutnov, where the new route to Silesia was going through. This place was called the Second Úpa and became a new settlement town of the Moravian family of Švábenice who colonized the countryside. The first written mentions of the city date back to 1260.

Together with the town, which had a regular checkerboard arrangement, the Idík from Švábenice established a spital in the valley and established a new castle that was built on one of the hilltops. This became the seat of the Švábenice lords. However, the family died out, so in the 1277, the Bohemian King Přemysl Otakar II ordered the city to be granted – together with the vicinity – to newly arriving German immigrants so they could colonize the area. The immigrants renamed the town from Slavonic “Úpa“ to German “Trutnau“. In old German, the meaning was "a nice city on the floodplain ". 

The legend of founding of Trutnov has it that when people founded the town of Trutnov, much wood was needed for construction. So two lumberjacks went to the forest near Trutnov. They saw a raven flying out of the the trees with a horrified scream. Then the two men saw a rocky cave, and in front of it a dreadful dragon. They quickly ran back to the town, informing the local landlord – the knight named Truth. He went into the forest and killed the dragon. In his honor, the town was named “Trutnov“ – the “City of Truth“.  In memory of the mythical event, the city celebrates every year the Dragon Festival. The city is also nicknamed “The Dragon Town“.

Althought Trutnove prospered as a market town and an important stop for passing traders, it has never became the centre of the region. It was “inferior“ to the nearby royal stronghold of Hradec Králové (Königgrätz). It was not until the industrial revolution and the following industrialization in the 1800s that Trutnov rose to greater importance. From its beginnings as a market town with a few nearby farms, it has developed into a thriving industrial mid-sized town of the Krkonoše Mountains pass, serving also as a railroad transfer station. 

Historically, the entire area was part of the so-called “Sudetenland“. It was a melting pot for Czechs, Germans, Poles and Jews. Sudetenland is the name for the northern, southern, and western areas of former Czechoslovakia which were inhabited primarily – but not only – by Sudeten Germans, whose ancestors came here in the 13th and 14th centuries as agricultural colonists after being invited by the Bohemian kings to cultivate the rough mountain areas. 

These German speakers had dominated most of the border districts of Bohemia, Moravia, and Czech Silesia from the time of the Austrian Empire in the 18th and 19th centuries. With the re-establishment of independent Czech state in 1918, they found themselves a minority. However, before its bitter end following WWII, this unique mixture of cultures influenced the local Jews greatly. 

Jews first started arriving as merchants as early as the 10th century. However, as unbelievable as it seems, the first documented mention of the Jews in Trutnov was from the year 1880. By that time, about 300 people (3% of the total population) claimed to be Jewish. In the 1930 there was 369 Jews in the city, representing about 2% of the overal population. The Jews in Trutnov were never numerous, but were influential. 

Members of the Jewish community have made significant contributions to the city. These included doctors, lawyers, bankers, financiers and entrepreneurs. For instance, Dr. Arnošt Porák was the owner of the largest cardboard factory in all of Austro-Hungary was in the late 19th century. Most of the Jews of Trutnov had German as their mother tongue. 

Until 1885, the members of the local Jewish Community used to meet for services in a rented space of the local German High School, later at the No. 9 “House of the Long Arch“ at the Town Square. The synagogue was built in 1885 at the foot of the hill Janský vrch south of the Main (now Krakonošovo) Square in Na Struze street. The building was designed by the Trutnov builder Konrad Kühn as a separate, one-storied building in the then very popular Neo-Renaissance style. The new synagogue soon became one of the striking landmarks of the city. Its tower with a dome above the western façade was visible and unmistakable from the entire valley.

The synagogue had 176 seats for men, of which 16 were for guests. A separate entrance next to the main one led via stairacase to the women's gallery with 120 seats. The total capacity of the synagogue was 396 seats, so – if neccessary (ie. During High Holidays) – all Jews of Turtnov could comfortably fit in. 

The Trutnov Temple functioned only for thirty-five years. In September 1938, after the Munich Agreement was signed, the disputed territory of Sudetenland (which Turtnov was part of) was annexed by Nazi Germany. On October 8, 1938, Trutnov was occupied by the German Wehrmacht and all but a few Jewish citizens fled for their lives. On November 10th of the same year, with the Nazi pogrom known as the "Kristallnacht," the now empty synagogue was an easy target – it was ransacked, set ablaze and it burned to the ground. As quickly as it emerged, the Jewry of Trutnov then ceased to exist. On the site of the former synagogue, a memorial stands remembering the local Jews and the Trutnov Synagogue. 

Though Trutnov would probably not be your first option when traveling around the Czech Republic on a Jewish tour as it has a sad end to its history, the town itself is beautiful and will definitely catch your eye.