For a long time already, the partner cities of Šumperk have been the Polish town of Nysa ww.nysa.pl, Bad Hersfeld www.bad-hersfeld.de, in Germany, Maarssen www.maarssen.org in Netherlands,  Prievidza www.prievidza.sk in Slovakia, Ebreichsdorf www.ebreichsdorf.at in Austria, Polock polotsk.vitebsk-region.gov.byin Belarus and also the Czech town Mikulov www.mikulov.cz.

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History

Šumperk was founded in the 13th century as the administrative centre of a region, where precious metals were mined. Its economic strength gradually started to depend on crafts, especially textile production. The town was a royal property, which was often pawned to leading aristocratic lineages. It became a seat of the Žerotín lineage in the 16th century. It was seized by the Liechtenstein lineage in the 17th century, it experienced the terrors of the Thirty Year War, it was burnt down by a fire in 1669 and it suffered the horrors of witch hunts ten years after that with a death toll of 25 townspeople. The textile industry brought a great economic boom to the town in the 19th century. The modern appearance of the town is the merit of leading Viennese architects, whose works can be found in various parts of the town. The town was called Little Vienna back then because of its architectural similarity with the Austrian capital. After WWII, all German inhabitants of the town, which formed the great majority of all inhabitants of the town, were forcibly expelled from the town. After a short stagnation, the town continued to develop and today it has 28 thousands inhabitants, which is almost two times more than in 1938.