Over the years there came about the unification of Prague’s towns (which already Charles IV sought to do). Josef II simply and effectively unified Prague between 1783 and 1784. The city had one court and neither archbishop nor senate had right to judge their ranks’ members. Only the Jewish town kept its own jurisdiction. In the beginning it looked like if Josef II wanted to restore elections of city representatives but the opposite was true and they were appointed in their functions.
Napoleon Bonaparte at first aroused among some Praguers a hope for Czech independency but in the end the opposite tendency won and Napoleon was strongly criticised by Czech intellectuals. This state of affairs was due to strong Russian and Slavic favouritism, which served as recourse for the Czech language revival.
The Napoleonic Wars didn’t concern Prague to a large degree and Prague was during this era visited by important people. Shortly before the Napoleonic Wars ended, the Prussian General Gerhard Scharnhorst came over to negotiate an anti Napoleon alliance but unfortunately died before he managed to do that. The currently renovated baroque chapel in Pernerova Street (Karlín area) served as his temporary burial place before he was moved to Berlin. Let’s us also mention the famous writer Goethe who at that time also became interested in the city. In 1707 a polytechnic school was founded by Josef II even though it had only a few students at this time who were studying mainly the art of fortification. In 1803 the emperor Francis II (František II) signed the foundation Decree of the Czech Estates Polytechnic Department, the school started working on 10th December 1806 and as a director was nominated F. J. Gerstner. It was a quality school providing education for future Engineers.
Modern City
The number of citizens had been gradually rising. At the end of the 18th century there were 80 thousand people living in Prague, by the middle of the 19th century this number rose to 150 thousand and by the end of the First World War it was already about 400 thousand.
Prague had been developing into a modern city during the whole period of 19th century. Manufactures, which were originally producing mainly luxury items, had been changing into factories spilling out cheap goods for a wide range of the population. By the middle of the century they grew into significantly large factories such as the Jewish factory producing ammunition, the porcelain factory at Smichov and many print-works that were employing about four thousand workers.
Some Jews stepped out of the ghetto and became entrepreneurs. Many of the print-works belonged to them. In 1844 workers’ strikes erupted in Porges, Schick, Lederer, Epstein and Dormitzet factories (all of them were print-works). Workers were rebelling against the implementation of machines. The uprising quickly awoke anti Jewish sentiment and pogrom was prevented only thanks to the tough military and police intervention. This was also the time of first Czech entrepreneurs such as Engineer Vojtěch rytíř Lanna one of the most significant characters of the 19th century. He built the chain bridge, predecessor of contemporary bridge Legií, embankment by the national Theatre and as a benefactor, contributed to the foundation of the National Technical Museum in Prague. Podskalí was at this times an important place for the building wood market and in the nineteen twenties coal begun to be mined in Petřín (it lasted 50 years), calcite was mined in Braník. Also machine works were rising and these grew into real giants. So in spite of the emperor not residing here, Bohemia and Prague became the most significant industrial part of the Austria-Hungary Monarchy.
Water, Gas, Electricity
Every metropolitan city has to have a quality infrastructure. In the beginning of the 19th century, water was pumped into water-towers and distributed to outlets by the help of wooden pipelines. During the twenties wooden pipelines were replaced by metal ones and towards the end of the century by the cast iron ones. Water was also already filtered. The end of the century gave rise to the magnificent water supply plan. Water started to be taken from wells in Kárané and this system works still today. Water started pouring into Prague in 1914. The sewerage system was in worse condition. In the beginning of the 19 century there were just local drainages, Prague was full of sumps and every flood meant the danger of epidemics. In 1877 the city council established a committee whose aim was to investigate possible sewerage system implementation. It took 15 long years for the committee to come up with the proposal to commission an Englishmen W. H. Lindley. He asked for at that time the unbelievable sum of 20 million crowns and managed to build the most modern sewage system in Europe. He created 175 kilometres of canals (which function still) and a sewage treatment plant, which is nowadays out of service, nevertheless, it became a very much appreciated monument.
Street lighting truly happened in the 19th century. Prague was provided firstly by about 120 oil lamps, scattered in the area between Celetna Street, Charles Bridge and Hradčany. In 1832 there were more than 1300 of them. 15th September 1847 was a day when the first two hundred gas lamps illuminated Prague. Gas lighting stayed until the nineteen seventies even though it had been gradually replaced by electricity. Nowadays we can see its revival (as a tourist attraction) and a plan to use it for the Royal way (leading from Celetna Street through Charles Bridge up to the Prague Castle). At the moment the gas lamps can be seen in the Old Town.
Transport in the city and in other parts
A modern big city can’t exist without a railway. Prague was connected by the railway with other parts of the country on the 20th August 1845 when a first steam train from Olomouc arrived at Masarykova Station (those days it was an Austrian State Station)
Also road maintenance improved. Taxation systems, according to which every passing car had to pay a fee, was done away with, pavement were financed by the state, the town-council and initially by donators. Town-councils negotiated with the big property owners to make them contribute towards the pavements’ cost. Prince Windischgratz for example donated the sum of two thousand florins. As early as the 19th century the sheet lying of the roads was under consideration, an example being Paris. Earl Chotek commissioned a detailed evaluation report and subsequently decided not to go ahead with asphalt work. From the historians point of view this turned out to be a lucky decision. Mainly in historical parts of Prague the building of wider pavements and routes was restricted by the house-building but then the city walls were knocked down and this made way for wider streets. First of them was Ferdinand Road (Ferdinandova třída) which replaced the former Old Town walls and became a favourite strolling spot. Increasing number of citizens also demanded a new kind of transport called public transport. In 1873 earl Zdeněk Kinský and Bernard Kollman acquired a concession to operate a tram, dragged by the horse team. The licence was valid for 51 years and issued by the emperor. The line was extending from Karlín to Smíchov and the aim was to connect all of the Prague’s villages. Unfortunately the Vienna stock market crash hampered the plan and horse-tram wasn’t build till 1875. Ten years later it already covered 20 kilometres. Czech engineer and the Karlín electrotechnic factory owner František Křižík gave an indication to buy and electrify the horse-tram. He was a very well know man amongst Praguers as he gave a demonstration of the electric tram at the Jubilee exhibition in 1891. Eventually Křižík constructed an electric tramway Praha – Libeň which was bought by Prague Electricity Company as was another route, build by Matěj Hlaváček between Anděl and Klamovka. The later wasn’t, however, a very lucky investment for this Czech entrepreneur, he went bankrupt and he decided to shoot himself. His relatives subsequently sold the tram-way to the city for 150 florins.
In 1897 the Royal City Prague Electricity Company was founded and the building of the united tram network begun. The horse-tram was, nevertheless, still operating; the last route was connecting Old Town with Lesser Town and passing through Charles Bridge. In 1908 the first buses appeared in Prague but their service was stopped a year later due to a dangerous accident.
The city was divided by the river and there was a need of some kind of connection. Until 1841 the only connecting link between two shores was Charles Bridge. Later on another bridge (Františka I) was built, followed by Palackého bridge and shortly afterwards Hlávkův, Čechův and Emperor František Josef I bridges. Let’s us remember also Negrelliho viaduct which is a magnificent example of engineering work and it serves as railway up to the present day. Last but not least, this is the era of Prague embankments creation, which protected the city against numerous floods of that period.
Another important means of transportation was shipping. The origin of the Prague Steam navigation Company dates beck to 1865. Towards the end of Habsburg’s era this company transported an unbelievable two million passengers per year.
The second half of the 19th century is a time of significant heavy industrial development. Prague had about 60 machine works; there were about 50 brickworks and 120 brick-kilns in the city neighbourhood. Rustonka, Kolbenka, Ringhofferka and eventually ČKD, these are all famous names and recognized as good brands throughout Europe. Prague also had its own motor works aptly named Praga.
The Second World War was drawing nearer and everything was put to a halt. When the war was over, Prague regained the former splendour of a European metropolis.