Matěj Hlaváček: Mayor Košíř introduced a tram to his village
The life path of the native of Kosice began to be written November 25, 1852. At that time, Košíře were separate municipalities, but at the same time they were not part of Prague. It only became “enriched” with them with the establishment of the Czechoslovak Republic in 1922.
“His father Václav owned a dairy shop and a farmstead. He trained as a butcher, entered a military music school as a student, attained the rank of adjutant and continued his military career as a musician,” says the book Famous Personalities in the History of Prague 5: Stories of Extraordinary Life, already edited by Jarmila and Hugo Schreiber. Music was Hlaváček’s hobby. Politics and business became life’s fulfillment, which he began to devote himself to fully in adulthood.
The savior of Klamovka
She helped him do it wedding “with Miss Schmiedová, daughter of the owner of estate No. 9 in Košířy. A dowry he acquired the land on which the brick factory was located, which he operated independently. In Košířy, he built a new brick factory, several houses and a large inn.
The Clam-Gallas family had a Rococo castle built on Klamovka. I got my name after them. Later, the Kosher mayor built a take-out restaurant and a dance hall here. Dissidents also met here in the 1970s
Author: wikimedia commons
“His biggest business plan, however, was operation of the garden restaurant Klamovky,” write the authors of Famous personalities of Prague 5. He bought it in 1895, when he was already the mayor of the municipality. In Klamovka”he set up a new large brickyard and transformed another part at a cost of over 100,000 guilders into a magnificent libosad. He built here garden paviliona great ballroom and extensive verandahs, lighted by electric current.’
The Klamovka area is still there today one of the most visited gardens in Prague – thanks to Hlaváček. But it achieved even greater merit.” He equipped the coachman, for example water supply or cobbled streets. And then also electricity, which played a large part in their development.
Hlaváček’s track
Electric tramway to Letná, electric small railway Prague – Libeň – Vysočany and Hlaváčkova railway to Košíř. What do these names have in common? It’s about chronological sequence of the three oldest tram lines in Prague. According to the name, Matěj Hlaváček deserved the last one, who even before arranged for him to go to Košíř from Prague the omnibus that brought Prague residents to Klamovka.
She became”excursion destination for numerous Prague residents. This success of the enterprise forced Mr. Hlaváček to try to carry out another, much more far-reaching enterprise: he took it upon himself to to establish an electric railway from Smíchov to Košíř,” wrote Národní listy in 1897. He did as he wished.
“The work progressed very well during the winter months, so the track was completely finished by the month of April, and the equipment and wagons were also prepared for the ceremonial opening of the track and the start of the journey. There was a pleasant well-being, especially during the Easter holidays, the Prague audience flocked outside the gate to nature,“The period print continues.
She led through the places where trams take their passengers every day even today – that is from Anděl along Plzeňská Street to Košířské náměstí. The performance was respectable, all the more so Hlaváček himself financed the introduction of the tram to Košíř, which brought with it great difficulties. It cost Hlaváček a lot of effort and even more money. The entire track cost 180 thousand guilders, which was in the 19th century wealthy.
Gun by the temple
Which was probably insurmountable for the already quite wealthy Hlaváček. “Protracted financial difficulties and indebtedness with the construction of electric railways caused Hlaváček to commit suicide in Prague’s Platýz,” it says in Famous personalities of Prague 5.
The last moments of his life were depicted in the October issue of Národní listý: “Yesterday morning, Mayor Hlaváček left his apartment, drove by electric railway in Smíchov, from there he took the tram to Prague to the Myslík station and then walked along the burned-out street. This is where he was last seen by some acquaintances.” He was headed to the well-known Platýz Palace, while before that he was supposed to buy a revolver with 6 sharp cartridges.
Platyz palace courtyard.
Author: Daniel Vitous
“He rented a room in the hotel, the door of which he locked with a key. Entrepreneurial Smíchov electric railways ended in suicide. Enterprising, energetic life, a man of pure character he prepared for the other world prematurely with a firearm yesterday.” This happened on October 6, 1897. He left behind a sad widow, three children, and a lifetime’s work that the inhabitants of Košíř can still consider. However One of the streets still bears Hlaváček’s name here. Hlaváčkova street is located near Plzeňská, where he had the first dormitory settled.
Mayor Košíř and businessman Matěj Hlaváček.
Author: Wikimedia.commons