The River That Was Too Tame for Swarovski

Before the Josefův Důl reservoir finally tamed the lively Kamenice once and for all, this mountain river had for centuries provided mechanical power for the mills, grinding workshops, glassworks and, later, factories that lined its banks. It was along the Kamenice that Swarovski learned the basics of cutting glass, while in Albrechtice he acquired the skills needed to work metal for jewellery production.

The slow, exhausting labour inspired him to design and patent a machine for cutting small glass blanks — the first of its kind in Austria-Hungary — which he intended to use to develop his own glassworks producing crystal, for which demand was beginning to grow. But the slender Kamenice, with its modest flow, simply could not keep pace with his ambitious plans. And so, in 1895, Swarovski, a native of the Jizera Mountains, decided to move production to the far more powerful waters of the Inn in Austria, where he began writing a very different story…

And the Kamenice? The Palacký Trail follows the most romantic stretch of its course. Construction began in 1912 at the initiative of the Czech Tourist Club. One of its first sections, between Plavy and Návarov, had in places to be cut directly into the rock. The aim was to open up the previously difficult-to-access valley and create a hiking link between the Bohemian Paradise, the Jizera Mountains and the Giant Mountains.