Petrović, Nikola: Hajózás és gazdálkodás a Közép-Duna-Medencében a merkantilizmus korában (Vajdasági Tudományos és Művészeti Akadémia, Novi Sad - Történelmi Intézet, Beograd, 1982)
Summary
Work on the Kupa project continued until 1807, and then abandoned, with nothing to show for it. This was a grave failure for the company and the third unsuccessful attempt to canalize the Kupa river during the 18th and early 19th century. The comapny records state that the works had been abandoned after an enormous sum had been spent, much more than planned, and that engineers were continuously being sent to study the site and find appropriate engineering solutions. Finally it proved that the technical problems were so difficult that before the works could be resumed at all a new plan had to be worked out in order to eliminate any further risk. However, there is no record of the nature of these difficulties. Work on this project has never been resumed. Having in mind the specific conditions of Gorski Kotar, along the northeastern rim of which the Kupa flows, I have tried, at least general terms to find the reasons for this failure. A plateau some 700 to 800 m above sea level, with a broken relief, with a complicated and irregular mountain ranges, short cold summers with three to four times more precipitation than the Pannonian Plain, Gorski Kotar was a far tougher problem for hydraulic engineering than the gentle plains of Backa. The reasons for the failure should therefore be sought in the hydraulic engineering techniques of those times, to which the use of concrete was still unknown and which did not take sufficient account of the geology of the terrain. After abandoning the Kupa project, the company decided to build a less difficult land artery from Karlovac to the Adriatic coast. The concession for this new project was obtained in the usual way, but the company still kept the former concession for the Karlovac—Brod canal. The management immediately sought a new loan, again under the surety of the shareholders. Count A.Aponyi was still the head of the company. The new road through Gorski Kotar was to link Karlovac with the Rijeka harbor. Construction work began in 1803. It was nearly finished when the Franco—Austrian peace treaty was signed (1809) in Schonbrunn, according to which the lands through which the road passed came under Franch rule. The remaining 15 km was finished by French engineers. The road was then named after Napoleon's wife Marie—Louise, an Austrian princess. The construction work was initially in the charge of General Filip Vukasovic, an Austrian officer of Yugoslav origin. The new road, built instead of the ill-fated canal from Karlovac to Brod na Kupi, greatly improved transport through Gorski Kotar, thereby facilitating transport from the Central Danube Valley to the Adriatic. Thus the Kiss brothers' basic goal was finally achieved, although not in the way they had envisaged. 509
