BERAUN (

See also:

• CZECH (in Bohemian, Cech)

Czech Beroun)  , a town of Bohemia, Austria, 27 M . S.W. of Prague by rail . Pop . (1900) 9693, mostly Czech . It is situated at the confluence of the Beraun with the Litawa river, and is the seat of important textile industry, sugar-refining, corn-milling and brewing . Lime-kilns and the manufacture of cement, and smelting and iron works are carried on in the environs . Beraun is a place of immemorial antiquity . It was originally called na Brode (by the ford), and received the name of Bern, Berun or Verona in the 13th century, when it obtained the privileges of a city from the emperor Charles IV., who was specially attached to the place, calling it " Verona mea." Under his patronage the town rapidly prospered . In 1421 'Lizka stormed the town, which later on was retaken and devastated by the troops of Duke Leopold, bishop of Passau . During the Thirty Years' War it was sacked by the Imperialists, the Saxons and the Swedes in turn; and in the first Silesian war the same fate befell it at the hands of the French and Bavarians .