Palacký University, Olomouc

The Palacký University of Olomouc is the oldest university in Moravia and the second-oldest in the Czech Republic. It was established in 1573 as a public university led by the Jesuit order in Olomouc, which was at that time the capital of Moravia and the seat of the episcopacy. At first it taught only theology, but soon the fields of philosophy, law and medicine were added. After the Bohemian King Joseph II's reforms in the 1770s the University became increasingly state-directed, while today it is a public university. During the Revolution of 1848 University students and professors played a very active role on the side of democratisation. The conservative King Francis Joseph I closed most of its faculties during the 1850s, but they were...