KARL LUDWIG von REICHENBACH Obsah Front page Images from Moravian Switzerland Museum of Blansko Region Moravian Karst Cave divers Henry Wankel Czechoslovak Lion History of the chateau Hugo Franz Old Count Salm KARL LUDWIG von REICHENBACH (1788 Stuttgart – 1869 Leipzig) Doctor of Philosophy, representative of the mining court in Kutná Hora, director of the mining office and partner of the ironworks on the estates of Rájec and Blansko, member of the geological society in Paris, the natural science society in Halle, the medical society in Erlangen, the Westphalian Society for Domestic Culture and the Society for the Promotion of Handicrafts in Prussia In the summer of 1817, Karl Reichenbach ended his study tour of the Prussian steelworks with a visit to the smelters in Gliwice. From there he continued on to Moravia, as he intended to take an interest in working in the ironworks in Blansko. He was fascinated by the large charcoal furnace there, built in 1807 by Zacharias Winzler, the first in all of Europe, and by the Mariánská smelter with its cupola for casting fine grey cast iron. However, the director of the Vienna Polytechnic Institute, Josef Johann Prechtl, dissuaded him from his plan and recommended the Baden Hammers in Hausach. Inspired by Blansko, Reichenbach built a pair of unique charcoal kilns there. In 1820, he offered the old Count Salm to build the same furnace in Blansko on the condition that he would receive a third of the proceeds from the Blansko smelters. The Old Count agreed and Reichenbach accepted the offer of metallurgical engineer in September 1821, after graduating as Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Tübingen. At the beginning of March 1822, the furnace began operation. In May 1823, Old Count Salm entrusted Karl Reichenbach with the management of all the metallurgical and mining operations, including the administration of his estate, and on 23 September Reichenbach commissioned the Mariana smelter with two cupolas. In the following year, statues from Blansko decorated the capital of the monarchy, Vienna, as part of the new ornamental plan. Reichenbach set up a chemical laboratory at Blansko Castle, where he stored rocks collected in the vicinity of Blansko and Boskovice, collected old maps of forest stands and modern measuring instruments. He began to systematically prepare for the creation of a geological map of Moravia. He also intended to establish a factory museum in the castle. The Arnost Valley was filled with the houses of workers working in the ironworks. By 1828, Reichenbach had built a drilling and wire factory, a rolling mill with three water wheels, a furnished art workshop, the Karlova smelter, rebuilt the Hugo smelter in Jedovnice and the Mariánská smelter in Klepáčov with a double increase and extension of the furnace, a kycht tower with a bridge, a second cupola and a rebuilding of the existing one, and bathrooms for the foundry workers. In 1824, the sculptor, modeller and chiseler Friedrich Koch was acquired for Blansko in the Prussian foundries of Gliwice. He lectured at international gatherings of natural scientists and physicians, for example in 1828 in Berlin, where 500 scientists from Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Holland, England and Russia gathered "and of the whole Austrian monarchy, only I, a single soul!" In 1830 he lectured in Vienna on paraffin and cholesterol, and at another Viennese gathering in October 1832 on creosote, a mineral oil obtained from beechwood tar. At the exhibitions in Prague and Vienna, statues of Apollo, Faunus and Venus de' Medici won gold medals: 'I'll bet my head if there is a single blast furnace in the whole Austrian monarchy that can compare with us'. In 1834, based on his researches, he published Geologische Mittheilungen aus Mähren in the Vienna publishing house of J. G. Heubner. Geognostische Darstellung der Umgegenden von Blansko, or Geognostic Views of the Surroundings of Blansko. In September 1834, the Mariánská Hut burned down, and Reichenbach was living in his native Stuttgart at the time. His wife Friederike Reichenbach died the following year. Reichenbach decided to leave Blansko after 1835, but after the death of the old Count Salm in 1836 he extended the association contracts with his son and successor Hugo Karl for the management of the estate, the ironworks and the mining office. In 1840 both parties terminated the contract and Karl von Reichenbach left Blansko forever. Olomučany pottery Archeology Treasure of silver coins The Mystery of "Býčí Skálal" Cave Princess of "Býčí Skála" Cave Funeral carriage Blansko artistic cast iron Karl Ludwig von Reichenbach