Sklářská stezka II – okolím Železnorudska
Gerl´s Glassworks, Gerlhütte
A glassmaster Pock (Bock) built a glassworks called Bockbastlhütte around 1600. In the first decades of the 17th century it was almost certainly a bead glassworks which was out of operation during the Thirty Years´ War while the metallurgical rights were passed on to the Pock´s descendants. After the end of the War the glassworks was run by Hans Haas, a glassmaster from Javorná. The glassworks was most likely managed by his son Adam who was married to Markéta Pocková. Hass sells the glassworks entity with all its lands to Sebastian Gerl, a glassmaster from Javorná. Sebastian Gerl was in charge of the glassworks till 1684 when he handed it over to his son Johann Phillip. During that period, sometime between 1698 and 1699 the glassworks was moved to a different location. Its production focused on hollow and partly window glass and glassbeads. The new glassworks called Gerl´s Glassworks was managed by Johann Phillip Gerl until 1715 when it was passed over to his son Johann Kaspar. Under his management, sheet glass was already manufactured there apart from hollow glass. The glassmaster Johann Kaspar Gerl died in 1733 not having a son to pass it over. His daughter Eva Marie got married to a glass master from Železná Ruda Josef Hafenbrädel who, in line of his family tradition, expanded the glassworks by another furnace for sheet glass production. Johann Josef was in charge of the glassworks for 20 years.
After his death in quite a young age the glassworks was run by his widow, from 1763 by her son Johann Wenzel. He made changes to the glassworks and set up his own company store house for sheet glass in Vienna. Increasing prices of potash undermined the grounds of financial vitality of the company. Moreover, the glassworks got under a serious of accidents – one smelter broke down under heavy fall of snow and the other burnt down. The company was bankrupt from 1781 to 1792 which ended up by a complete bankruptcy in 1793.
The glassworks was then bought by Johann Wenzl Adler, a glassmaster from Brunst. According to the existing records, the glassworks was working quite irregularly, often completely out of operation until the 20s of 19th century due to the deep demand crisis in Czech glassmaking industry. In that time it was Adler´s widow and later her sons Anto and Ignaz who were in charge of it. Sometime in the early 30th of the 19th century the glassworks was shut down and keptout of operation for about two decades. In 1851 it was purchased by Peter Ziegler from Alžbětín who produced sheet glass here. The glassworks remained a family property also under the management of his son Wolfgang who bought it to another glass master from Alžběžín-Wolfgang´s uncle Franz Schrenk in 1875–1879. Wolfgang remained in the position of its director until its break-down in the year 1887. Written by PhDr. Jitka Lněničková
Useful information
Important information:
- Čachrov Municipality Office, tel. 376 399 838
- Czech Post – Železná Ruda (tel. no. 376 326 313), Mo – Fri: 8:00 – 11:00, 13:00 – 17:00
- Medical Help – Železná Ruda (tel. no. 376 397 312), Mo, Thu: 7:30 – 17:00, Tue, Wed, Fri: 7:30 – 12:00,
- Police – Železná Ruda (tel. no. 602 437 686)
- Fire Brigade – Hojsova Stráž (tel. no. 606 312 870)
- Fire Brigade – Železná Ruda (tel. no. 724 347 596)
- Pharmacy – Železná Ruda (tel. no. 376 397 032), Mo – Fri: 8:00 – 12:00, 13:00 – 17:00
- Scrap yard – Železná Ruda, Wed: 14:00 – 18:00, Sat: 8:00 – 12:00
- Car Repair Shop – Dalibor Řehulka, Špičák 138 (tel. no. 605 803 685)
- Breakdown Service, Trucking – KS Kontejner (tel. no. 725 809 030)
- Breakdown Service, Trucking – Petr Pospíšil (tel. no. 603 226 160)
