Nový Knín, a Royal Mining Town, is inhabited by more than 1700 people today. It consists of former villages - Nový Knín, Starý Knín, Sudovice, Kozí Hory, Chramiště and Libčice.
The first traces of human beings in the surroundings of Nový Knín, two stone axes, dated back to the new Stone Age. The preserved marks of digging, the adits and archeological finds show that the area attracted people by gold. Some of the finds are displayed in the local museum.
Nový Knín was first mentioned in 1186 when Czech Duke Bedřich and Moravian Margrave Konrád Ota came there and concluded into convention on re-affiliation of the area of Moravia to the Czech Lands. The agreement is known as "Knín Reconciliation"and bears witness to importance of Nový Knín in that time.
In 1218 and 1219 King Přemysl Otakar I stayed at Nový Knín and in 1341 also King John Luxembourg spent some time there. In the document from 1321 there is a mention about a local settlement. The development of gold extraction in the following years attracted miners to settle down and enlarge it into a town with own adit in 1379. The blooming of the site was interrupted by Hussite Wars. The town was burnt down; important documents were destroyed by the fire. One of them was a Royal Prerogative, conferred upon the town by King Sigismund Luxembourg in 1437. As lately as George of Poděbrady confirmed all the town privileges received before - tax-relief, privileges of opening mines, of taking wood from the royal and hospital forests, of hunting hares and birds at municipal lands, of fishing in municipal waters and the Mile Right of brewing and tapping beer and of execution.
In the course of the 16th century the town of Nový Knín was blooming. It belonged to the Royal Gold Mining Towns along with the towns of Jílové and Kašperské Hory. Nový Knín was administered by Senior Mint Manager as the other mining towns were.
The period of the Thirty Years' War was a hard blow for the town of Nový Knín. In October 1639 Swedish forces commended by General Banner plundered and burnt down houses, killed its inhabitants and left the town in ruins. The people who survived rebuilt and revived the town received the confirmation of their town privileges from King Leopold I in 1680, but the former economic well-being was not refreshed. The attempt to reset mining was not successful but the mining activities were being kept on until the late 20 th century. The prestige of the town was appreciated again in 1776 when the Empress Maria Theresa of Austria established a School on Apiculture (bee-hiving), the only of its kind in Bohemia. In 1850, after reforms of municipal authorities, Nový Knín lost its old rights of the Royal Mining Town and its progress was slowed down. The railway which was built in1897 and led from Prague to Dobříš passed Nový Knín in the distance of 2.5 km. It was not a kind of big help so economic conditions for development of the town were getting worse.
Nový Knín profited on handicraft industry, on farming and on trade. The development of the activities in those branches was interrupted by the World War II and after February 1948 by Communist Regime. At present, appearance of the town is being changed, as former owners of local estates came back after November 1989 and took charge of them. The care of historical monuments was ensured in 1990 by declaration of Listed Municipal Area. In 1996 Nový Knín was granted to the statute of a town again.
Former fame of Nový Knín as a Royal Mining Town might never come back but its historical and tourist centre which has not been touched by agriculture or industry could play an important role in development of the town in its future. Gold Museum in Nový Knín, a department of the Mining Museum in Příbram, would like to contribute to that aim. The museum is situated in a historical building, in the former Mint, at the Jiřího z Poděbrad´s (George of Poděbrady´s) Square. It shows mining activities which passed in the basin of the Kocába River in the course of many centuries, from the earliest time to the 20 th century. In the period of 15 th century the extracted gold was treated and sent to mints in Prague and Kutná Hora. The building of the local mint served as a seat of the portreeve from 1561. It was a Renaissance house with a Gothic basement which was rebuilt in a Baroque style and in 1801 its face was decorated in the Empire style. The displays on the first floor introduce the history of the extraction and procession of gold in the surroundings of Nový Knín, the history of the town, local craft industry and trade, the history of the Open Gold Panning Championships in our country and in the world. The visitors can enjoy also educational walks on geology and mining in the surroundings of Nový Knín.