Three years later, new city walls enclosed the suburb Bělidla with the Franciscan monastery. The territorial and economic expansion of the 16th century was accompanied by a cultural boom.

The first pioneer of Renaissance art in Olomouc was probably Jan Filipec, Bishop of Oradea, a native of Prostějov and Administrator of the Olomouc Diocese (1482-1497), close to King Matthias Corvinus The real blossoming of the Renaissance in Olomouc took place under Bishop Stanislav Thurzo, who served as bishop in the years 1497 to 1540. A humanist from an important Upper Hungarian aristocratic family, he was known as promoter and supporter of the Olomouc humanist society called Sodalitas Maierhofiana, founded in 1502. Among the intellectuals and poets, well-known even outside the Czech lands, were for example the provost of the chapter Augustine Käsenbrod (“Augustin of Olomouc”), Martin of Jihlava or Štěpán Taurinus, whose work from 1519 includes the first mention of the Olomouc Astronomical Clock. Further Olomouc bishops Jan Dubravius and Marek Kuen later too became members of the Society.

Bishop Stanislav Thurzo was an ardent Catholic. The infamous inquisitor Heinrich Institoris was active in Olomouc shortly after his taking office. Stanislav Thurzo was he who initiated the construction of a new bishop's residence in the eastern part of Předhradí. During the entire 16th century, a vibrant construction activity took place in the city. Not only the citizenry adapted their houses to the new lifestyle, nobility too built palatial houses.

Counter-Reformation

More than twenty prominent aristocratic families, such as the Pernštejns, the Liechtensteins, lords of Boskovice, Ludanice, Žerotín and others dwelt in Olomouc. The city council didn't run behind either after having decorated the eastern facade of the Town Hall with a magnificent Renaissance portal in 1530, later completed by a new staircase and a loggia. The Renaissance era was also a time of religious disputes between Catholics and Protestants. For example, the printer Jan Olivetský was executed in Olomouc in 1547 for printing "heretical" books, non-Catholics raided the Dominican monastery in 1553. The Jesuit order came to town as early as 1556 with the arrival of intensive Counter-Reformation in the second half of the 16th century. Bishop Vilém Prusinovský was a major supporter of this order. To him Olomouc owes the foundation of the second oldest university in the Czech Lands - the Jesuit academy, in 1573.

The next chapter of the Counter-Reformation took place under the Bishop Stanislav Pavlovsky (1579-1598), another of the Cathedral builders. At this time, Emperor Rudolf II. returned princely titles to bishops making it sufficiently clear to the secular aristocracy who, after the emperor, occupied the most important position in Moravia. The coat of arms of the Olomouc Diocese was also improved by this time. The three towers of the Olomouc Cathedral, built by Bishop Pavlovský, perished, however, during the later Neo-Gothic reconstruction. With its eight thousand inhabitants and 1200 houses, Olomouc was the second largest city in the Czech lands after Prague before the Thirty Years' War.

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