Adalbert Lanna the Elder
After success in the Vltava river trade with salt and wood, Adalbert Lanna the elder expanded his business into other areas such as construction, coal mining, iron processing or brewery.
In addition to his native České Budějovice, he significantly contributed to the economic development of Týn nad Vltavou, Kladno and Prague.
He returned home and worked as a crew member on ships sailing salt from České Budějovice to Týn nad Vltavou.
[5] In addition to salt, Adalbert Lanna the Elder also began shipping construction wood and graphite from Český Krumlov district.
The Green Branch Inn was then used as a key point for reloading goods from the railway to the Vltava river shipping route.
In the emperor's honor, he had a monumental festive gate with a 66-meter obelisk built right next to his shipyard and organized a crowd of his employees (river crew members) to hail the glory of the imperial couple.
This costly undertaking certainly contributed to the fact that Adalbert Lanna the Elder was one of the six burgers of České Budějovice who were awarded a distinction by the emperor.
In November 1840, Adalbert Lanna the Elder purchased Poříčí Castle with the adjacent estate and the village of Včelná and Vrcov from the Český Krumlov paper-maker František Josef Pachner.
In his new seat in Poříčí, he rebuilt the local brewery so that he could brew beer using the new bottom fermentation method which was gaining popularity.
[15] In 1847, the Blanice river was made navigable by Lanna's firm and the Stádlec Suspension Bridge over the Vltava near Podolí was constructed by his company.
Abolition of serfdom – one of the permanent consequences of the Revolution of 1848 in the Austrian Empire - also affected Lanna financially, who lost subjects in Poříčí and other estates.
[19] In 1851, he also visited the first World Exhibition and used this trip to learn about operations in the coal and iron regions of England, Belgium and the Rhineland.
The highest interest of the visitors generated the carvings of Jan Pták, who at the time participated on the ongoing extensive construction of the new castle in Hluboká nad Vltavou.
In 1852, Lanna became one of the co-founders of the new joint-stock company C. k. privilegovaná pražská továrna na porcelán a zboží hliněné ("C. k. privileged Prague factory for porcelain and earthenware"), which took over the porcelain factory in Smíchov and also became a co-founder of an unsuccessful project of linen manufacture in Želnava in the Bohemian Forest, which was canceled after eleven years of operation at a loss.
At the same time, Lanna started the construction of a blast furnace in his Kladno foundry, which he connected by railway with Nučice, where new deposits of iron ore had been discovered not long before.
[21] With the vision of the imminent construction of the Western Railway and in anticipation of easy sales, the Prague Ironworks Company began to invest massively in the expansion of its foundry.
He had already sold the castle in Poříčí with the surrounding land five years earlier to obtain funds for the construction of the Kladno foundry.
[22] However, the economic results of the Prague Ironworks Company fell short of expectations, and the construction of the Western Railway was further postponed.
On 2 July 1824, the then nineteen-year-old Adalbert Lanna the Elder sailed on a ship loaded with merchant goods on the Vltava weir in Horní Lipovsko (today part of Dražíč-Vranov.
The inscription on it read: Zum dankbaren Andenken an die Rettung aus den Wasserfluthen bei dem am 2.
