Pražská paroplavební společnost, a.s.

Since very old times, the Vltava river had influenced the life of Prague. Here, steam navigation had been a very important episode, changing not only the character of the Vltava river-sides but also the way of living of the city´s inhabitants. Steamers and passenger ship transport have belonged to Prague since the forties of the 19th century, and till nowadays they are an historic component of the city´s colours.

Steam navigation tradition began in Prague with the experiments of Joseph Božek on a steam boat at Stromovka, in 1817. The first steamer \„Bohemia\“ was built here by John Joseph Ruston of England, and together with John Andrew, the ship holder, they presented it to the Prague citizens in May 1841. After that the \„Bohemia\“ served in the route to Dresden on the Elbe river. To Prague it could only go exceptionally under very favourable navigation conditions.

Further attempts to introduce steam navigation through the Vltava to Prague, but without success, were made in 1857 by the British J.U.Pierce and J.Winter from Weiher (Děčín).

The first successful attempt introducing passenger ship transport to Prague is connected with the foundation of the Steam Navigation Society of Prague (Pražská paroplavební společnost, PPS) in 1865. Its rise belonged to František Dittrich, later Prague´s Lord Mayor, and was established as a completely Czech enterprise.

The Prague Society acquired the first steamer in 1865, further steamer \„Vltava\“ followed a year later. The oldest PPS steamers were delivered, as usually, from the Ruston´s shipyard in Prague, which belonged to the biggest Austrian enterprises of this branch at that time. Since the end of the eighties of the 19th century, PPS owned a quite big steamer park, which was gradually expanded. The last ones bought by the Society are from the forties, two of them are still in use. The passengers steamers form the kernel of the contemporary boat´s park.

The beginning of the passenger-ship-transport with its navigation restricted only through Prague and to Štěchovice, later expanded to Mělník, and then down the Elbe to Hřensko and up the Elbe to Kostelec and Nymburk. It attracted a considerable interest, its summit achievement was at the end of the 19th century and in the twenties and forties of the 20th century. After financial difficulties that the company had in the thirties, the State had gained a share and later it belonged directly to the Transport Enterprise of the city of Prague. Since 1992 it has been transformed into a private company and this change brought a marked investment into the development of the ship´s park in order to improve the quality of the client service.