Timeline
Chronology
1735: Josef Rosenbauer is born in Chvalšiny near Český Krumlov.
1750: Josef Rosenbauer joins the Rotenhof pheasantry as a forestry apprentice.
1753: Empress Maria Theresia grants Baron Grechtler the right to float wood from the south-west slopes of Dreisesselberg Mountain to the Danube along the Große Mühl River. This right is passed on to Hochstift Passau in 1766. Between 1766 and 1786, the Schlägl Monastery supplies 6,000 cords of wood.
1758: Josef Rosenauer becomes a Forestry Assistant in Český Krumlov:
1771: Josef Rosenauer returns from studying at the Engineers’ Academy in Vienna, where he had been sent by Prince Schwarzenberg, and becomes a Forestry Engineer.
1774: Josef Rosenauer presents a canal draft to Prince Schwarzenberg.
1775: Josef Rosenauer begins levelling the canal road.
1778: Josef Rosenauer presents his canal draft to Prince Schwarzenberg for a second time. In the process, he proposes to cover the construction costs for the first year, after which income is supposed to pay for the canal’s construction.
1779: At Landtafel Prag (literally “Prague Land Tables”, a predecessor of land registry), Josef Rosenauer is appointed an authorised surveyor of the Kingdom of Bohemia.
1780: Prince Schwarzenberg commissions Josef Rosenauer with examining the possibility to adapt the Vltava River at Teufelsmauer (literally “Devil’s Wall”) in such a way that rafts could be floated downriver.
1784: Josef Rosenauer proposes to circumvent the rapids by means of a 6.3 km long and 5.7 m wide canal. Prince Johann I of Schwarzenberg approves this plan. Construction was scheduled to start in 1785, but a commission rejects it due to excessive costs.
1789: On 29 April 1789, construction of the Schwarzenberg Canal begins. At 21 km, the first construction section stretches from the source of Zwettlbach Creek at the water divide (Rosenhügel) to Hefenkriegbach Creek.
In the very same year, an Imperial Commission was able to see for itself that water actually flowed from the tributaries of the Vltava to the Große Mühl River and further into the Danube via the water divide (Rosenhügel).
1790: Emperor Joseph II dies on 20 February 1790 and is succeeded by Leopold II. The first float trials are conducted in the spring of 1790.
Leopold II grants Prince Schwarzenberg the right to float pieces of wood and logs to the Große Mühl River via a canal that was to be built.
Josef Rosenauer becomes the Prince’s “Canal Director” and now answers directly to the Prince.
1791: The first pieces of wood are floated down the canal on 15 April 1791. The first pieces enter the water at Rosenhügel and arrive at Untermühl a day later.
1793: The canal construction reaches Hirschbergen, completing the “Old Canal” (Hirschbergen to Zwettelbach).
1804: Aged 69, Josef Rosenauer dies in Český Krumlov.
1805: Rosenauer’s successor as Canal Director, Ernest Mayer, replaces the wooden channel at Roßbach Creek with a bridge made of wet masonry as well as an earthen dam.
1821: Ernest Mayer begins construction of the “New Canal” (Hirschbergen to Lichtwasserbach Creek) with the help of engineers Falta and Kraus. Instead of the large loop around Flößlberg (Plešivec) envisioned by Rosenauer, Mayer proposes to dig through the mountain slope and build a tunnel measuring 221 cords (419 m).
Tunnel construction starts on 4 September 1821. After the construction of two ventilation shafts between the entrance and exit of the shaft that are sunk down to 7 / 8 cords (13.28 / 15.18 m), the workers can advance from 6 points simultaneously. Some 4,000 kg of gunpowder are required to blast through the coarse granite.
Floating rights are extended by another 30 years.
1823: Tunnel construction is complete.
1824: Wood is floated through the tunnel for the first time.
1835: Construction of a reservoir at Hirschbergen (Jelení Jezirko).
1851: Floating rights are extended by another 30 years.
1835: Errichtung des Stauweihers bei Hirschbergen (Jelení Jezirko).
1851: Schwemm-Privileg wird auf weitere 30 Jahre erteilt.