Department of Geomatics

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Two Centuries of Railways in the Czech Lands. Cultural, Socio-economic and Transport Technical Aspects of the Development of Czech (Czechoslovakian) Railways

The project focuses on research into the cultural, social, economic and technical development of railways in the Czech lands/Czechoslovakia. The aim is to examine the railway in the broad context of the development of society and its modernisation, to which the railway has made a significant contribution.

RESEARCHER

Ing. Jiří Krejčí

TIME PERIOD

1.3.2023 – 31.12.2027

Project characteristics

Previous research has focused either on technical and operational data of locomotive and rolling stock, or on partial stages of railway construction or lines, whether amateur historians, railway experts with an interest in history, laymen or those interested in technology and local history. The project concentrates on the importance of the railway for the creation of industrial landscapes (intramural, extramural), for regions with supra-regional (provincial, national) links, for society (enabling the circulation of goods, people, employment, leisure, changes in settlement, culture and art). The emphasis will be on the everyday from the point of view of railway staff and passengers, the cultural aspect of the railway (including the external and internal 'beauty' of railway artefacts, i.e. locomotive and rolling stock, as well as railway architecture and the influence of the arts). In this context, the fascination with the railway, which appears in a wide range of manifestations in society (music, poetry, visual arts, museology, photography - the phenomenon of the railway enthusiast), will not escape attention. The main output will be two interactive railway maps with descriptions and the organisation of an exhibition with a critical catalogue. Especially in the context of the exhibition, the transport and traffic aspect will necessarily be involved. The project will build on previous projects (books, maps, exhibitions). The involvement of a broad team of experts has created adequate professional prerequisites for the implementation of the project. The result will be a reflection on the railway as a landscape forming factor, a factor that has changed society and individual life, the railway as part of the national cultural heritage, in other words, the railway in its cultural, economic and social aspects.