Žirovnice

Žirovnice
Žirovnice
Town
	Žirovnice Castle and the Church of Saints Philip and James
	Flag Coat of arms
	Žirovnice Location in the Czech Republic
	Coordinates: 49°15′20″N 15°11′29″E / 49.25556°N 15.19139°E
Country	Czech Republic
Region	Vysočina
District	Pelhřimov
Area
• Total	44.4 km2 (17.1 sq mi)
Elevation	565 m (1,854 ft)
Population (31.12.2013)
• Total	2,954
• Density	67/km2 (170/sq mi)
Website	www.zirovnice.cz

Žirovnice (Czech pronunciation: [ˈʒɪrovɲɪtsɛ]; Template:Lang-de) is a town in the Vysočina Region, Czech Republic.

The town was built around a castle of the same name. First written account is from year 1358.^[1] Žirovnice was traditionally town of weavers, but in 1863, manufacturing of buttons from nacre was introduced. In 1940s, nearly 100 nacre-processing manufactures existed in the small town. After Communists seized power in 1948, these manufactures were nationalized and transformed into one company, which still exists. In castle Žirovnice there is a museum of button-manufacturing and nacre-processing.^[2]

The small river Žirovnička flows through the town. There are many historical buildings in the town - the Castle of Žirovnice, St. Filip's and St. Jakub's church and others. Žirovnice has 2954 inhabitants (at 31.12.2013).^[3] There is varied cultural life in the town. Every year the inhabitants celebrate the festival of Žirovnice's unicorn (the unicorn is the symbol of the town).