Emperor Josef II founded this town near Litoměřice in the late 18th century. It is an outstanding example of a military fort in the style of Classicist architecture. The complex consists of three parts – the main fortress with the garrison town, the so-called Small fortress and the Upper and Lower “Water gates”.
The garrison town has a regular ground plan with a central town square and a Classicist church built in the early 19th century. The military fort with extensive bastions and underground casemates have preserved in the nearly original state.
In the course of World War II the town was ill-fated as a "model" concentration camp for Jews from all over Europe; the Small fortress served as a prison for the Prague Gestapo. A Memorial to the victims of Nazism and the Holocaust has been established here as a memento of modern European history.