1845: Pardubice is connected to the railway

The first railway in what is now the Czech Republic was built in the 1820s; in 1827 the first horse-drawn line was opened, connecting Linz with České Budějovice. In the late 1830s the Emperor Ferdinand Northern Railway Company, owned by Salomon Mayer Rothschild, began building railways for steam trains. The rail line from Olomouc to Prague was built by the engineer Jan Perner (1815–1845), who worked for the Austrian state. Although Perner is now a renowned figure in Pardubice’s history (a street, a square, and a faculty of the city’s university are named after him, and there is also a statue of him), he was not born in Pardubice, but in Bratčice near Čáslav. However, his parents lived in Pardubice, and they owned a mill in the city (on today’s Pernerova Street), where Perner also died.

After completing his studies at Prague’s technical university, Jan Perner went on a study trip to Germany, Belgium and England. He then began building railways in Russia, but he did not stay there for long. From 1837 he was involved in railway-building projects in the Habsburg Monarchy. Perner decided on the route of the line from Vienna to Prague (via the Pardubice region and the Labe valley), and his proposed route for the Prague–Dresden line was also approved. The line from Olomouc to Prague was ceremonially opened on 20 August 1845, and Perner appeared to have a promising career ahead of him – but it was cut short by a tragic accident.

When travelling from Moravia on 9 September 1845, after passing through the Choceň tunnel, Perner descended to the lowest outside step of a wagon while the train was in motion, and his head and shoulder collided with a signal pole. He was seriously injured, and he died the next day at his parents’ home.
Perner’s railway made it possible to establish various factories in Pardubice (and elsewhere); raw materials were supplied to them by rail, and the finished goods were transported by rail to customers all over Europe. The railway prevented famine, as grain could be transported from regions where the harvest had been good to areas where crops had failed.