The Oder-Vistula-Dniester Canal - the infrastructural legacy of the Habsburg Empire

Abstract

The article presents the rationale behind the construction of the Oder-Vistula-Dniester Canal, the implementation phase of the project, the environmental impact and the remaining contemporary vestiges of the investment. The spatial turn approach has been used to study the state of inland navigation and the political and economic factors linked to it, both at the level of the Empire as a whole and at the level of Galicia and the micro-regions. The enactment of the Waterways Act 1901 was the result of political dealings, with economic considerations being of secondary importance. For the Empire, the canal was a means of appeasing national sentiment, while the regulation of the rivers flowing into the canal was seen by the local community as a means of preventing flooding. The inhabitants of the areas along the canal's route were opposed to the canal because it restricted their access to land. Despite attempts to continue the project after the collapse of the Empire, the project was eventually abandoned, leaving the canal and its associated investments as an infrastructural legacy of the Habsburg Empire. The canal had its greatest impact on the Carpathian rivers, the regulation of which irrevocably destroyed the natural bottoms of the valleys.