Zprávy památkové péče 2020, 80(1):89-100 | DOI: 10.56112/zpp.2020.1.10

The "Kopal" glassworks in Mnichovo Hradiště. The growth and fall of a Czech factory "for all kinds of raw materials needed for the Jablonec glass industry"

Jana Tichá

NPÚ, GnŘ

The Kopal Glassworks complex was established on the outskirts of Mnichovo Hradiště in the 1920s and focused on the production of jewelry and small toiletry, decorative, and chandelier glass. At the time, it was one of the few Czech companies in the Jablonec industrial sector. At first, Petr Kopal, the founder of the glassworks, only traded in Jablonec goods; in 1920, however, he began the construction of his own glassworks. His glassworks was a more modern type and represented minor but not insignificant competition to German producers in an economic struggle exacerbated by national pressures. Documents stored in the archives of the Mnichovo Hradiště Building Authority testify to the construction of the glassworks and the development of the complex in terms of their administrative and bureaucratic processes. These documents also enable us to follow the construction and, partially, the usage of a colony of employee houses with 13 flats, built near the glassworks by Petr Kopal. Insufficient information is available on the economic importance of the glassworks; the most shared source is the archive of the Museum in Mnichov Hradiště, containing correspondence from Petr Kopal from the period after the cessation of production in 1931, and reflecting his futile efforts after its restoration. The necessary context can only be added in general, based on analogies and developments in the field; Petr Kopal started the construction of the glassworks at the moment of the biggest boom of the Jablonec industry, but after initial successes he suffered significant financial losses for the exposed branch, in 1927. These losses weakened him so much that he could no longer face the economic crisis after 1929, which had a huge impact on the Jablonec industry which was 90% dependent on exports. Petr Kopal sought to resume production in the glassworks until 1937, but his efforts were opposed by state regulation of the glass industry, as well as by professional groups trying to eliminate competition. In 1938, Kopal's glassworks was auctioned off and production was resumed by the company Linka and Sons, one of the few Czech companies in the Jablonec industry that moved production inland after the German occupation of the border. At the beginning of World War II, however, its operation was stopped due to a lack of raw materials. After the war, the glassworks was nationalized and glass production ceased. After 1989, the factory returned to the descendants of the last director of the glassworks as part of the restitution process. Today, the glassworks serves as the headquarters for the ECOGLAS company as a manufacturer of technical glass optics. Although the four decades of socialism and utilitarian adaptations of recent decades have resulted in the complete loss of the technology and the obscuration of the architectural appearance of the glassworks' buildings, they barely affected its material layout. Most of the glassworks' structures are also preserved, as are relics of the facade solutions. The heritage value of the glassworks is thus quite high, and potential construction and architectural rehabilitation of the complex is feasible.

Keywords: glassworks, glass semi-finished products, Mnichovo Hradiště, Petr Kopal, Jablonec glass industry / Jablonec goods, employee houses

Published: March 1, 2020  Show citation