1.6.
2006
Pudlov
The first note about the village dates back to 1428. It was a small village located in a flat area and its residents used to be mainly farmers. The origin of the name of Pudlov is not quite clear. Geographical names with the basis “Pudel” are usually located near water. As the village is located at the Odra, which frequently flooded the village, it is probable that the name of Pudlov was derived from the surrounding landscape. The old centre of the village used to be called Dědina. The part at the border with Vrbice used to be called Na granici, it was renamed to Louny after World War II. The village was scarcely inhabited and its development started after the construction of industrial plants, predominantly in Šunychl-Bohumín-nádraží and other neighbouring villages.
It is interesting to follow the inflow if investments at the end of the 19th century and in the first decade of the 20th century. In 1875 C. Bujakovski built a small factory in Šunychl, producing mill stones. In 1885 A. Hahn, an industrialist from Berlin, commenced the construction of a large tube-rolling mill in Šunychl together with his partner H. Eisner, and two years later count Larisch built a mineral oil refinery near the railway connection to Annaberg (current Chałupki). Local entrepreneur Starhemberg opened a brickyard in Záblatí in 1890 where local raw materials were used. Oilman Weinreb a spol. from Halič built a pine pitch refinery in Šunychl in 1893. In 1896 three plants were established. Berger a spol., a company from Lvov, built a brickyard in Šunychl and Vogt, an entrepreneur from Berlin, built a small soap and candle factory in Starý Bohumín. But it was a wire-mill built in Pudlov in the same year that became most important for its development. It was funded from the joint capital of steel entrepreneurs from Silesia.
Before the end of the century a small oil-mill named “Ostia” was established. Rudolf Goldschmied a spol., a joint stock company, invested its capital successfully in the construction of a chemical factory in 1904, originally focused on the production of zinc dyes. It achieved a monopoly position in the production of saccharine within the monarchy very fast. In 1908 Quasnitz brickyard was also established in Skřečoň, using local raw materials, and eventually in 1923 a factory, owned by Kalla, was established in Pudlov, focused on processing sea fish, called Kalorka by locals. Unfortunately, much to regret of both the residents and tourist from Poland, this popular mill was closed in the 90s of the 20th century.
The increase of inhabitants is documented best in the attached table. It is apparent that Bohumín-město (Starý Bohumín) stagnated while the number of inhabitants increased, predominantly in Pudlov, which changed from a small village to almost a town with four-thousand inhabitants.
There are not many significant buildings in Pudlov. The best-known of them comprise the chapel of St. Isidore – a farmer from 1902, the pedestrian bridge over the Odra (Antošovická lávka), newly built in 2000 because the original one was pulled down during the flood in 1997. Further, there is a water reservoir from the 50s of the 20th century and many parts of the rail superstructure of the former narrow-gauge railway.
The first school in Pudlov dates back to 1876 and the second one to 1897–1898. Both of the schools used to be next to the chapel and were completely destroyed during the air raid on 29 August 1944. The name of the current school is the Basic School of T. G. Masaryk. Lots of senior citizens still remember “Staro kolonia”, called Morocco, maybe because the houses had small windows similarly as in Morocco.
Nowadays 1,541 people live in the village and the major industrial companies are Bekaert, s. r. o. and Železárny a drátovny Bohumín, a. s. (Steel and Wire Works)