History/History/Development of industry

Development of industry and social life

A number of industrial enterprises both large and small began to appear in Pardubice in the second half of the 19th century after the arrival of the railway. Engineering and food-processing were the first dominant businesses. Confectionery enterprises were famous for their gingerbread, the distillery became the second largest business of its type in Austro-Hungary at the end of the century and the Franck chicory factory also won great renown. These industries were joined a little later by chemistry; one example, the former mineral oil refinery owned by the Fanto Company, is still in operation today under the name of Paramo.

Economic development was accompanied by the development of social and cultural life in the town. Secondary school education was established, as were numerous cultural and educational clubs and societies. A museum was opened in 1880, a public library in 1897 and a new town theatre was built in 1909.

Social life in Pardubice at that time was also greatly influenced by the major local horseback garrison, whose existence here led to the tradition of annual par force hunting (horseback pursuit) in autumn. These events took place in the town and its surroundings regularly from 1841 and were of great importance to the life of the town given that they were attended by the very highest social strata. And in a sense they have them to this day; it was certain participants in hunting par force that began the famous Great Pardubice Steeplechase (Velká pardubická) back in 1874.

Of the host of interesting people to have influenced life in Pardubice at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century we should mention at least two outstanding natives of the town. Baron Artur Kraus was a pioneer of motoring, tennis and skiing. He was the first person to own a typewriter, phonograph and camera in Pardubice and was a pioneer of Czech astronomy. The Baron was also extremely taken by the attractive innovation of the day – aviation. He was unsuccessful in his own practical attempts at flying, but became a sort of patron of aviator Ing. Jan Kašpar, who was thirty years his junior. It was Kašpar who in 1910 became the first Czech to get an aircraft off the ground and who one year later made the pioneering flight from Pardubice to Prague, quite an exceptional feat in Europe at the time. The observatory in Pardubice is named after Baron Kraus and the local airport holds an Aviation Fair every year in honour of Kašpar.