Place
At the Green Sprig — where the horse railway reached for Lanna
A coaching inn of 1821 with stables, stores, workshops and flats for coachmen. In 1838 Vojtěch Lanna had a horse-railway siding brought here — so that freight could transfer straight onto boats or wagon trains. It is the only place in town where railway, wagons and river met in one courtyard. And it still stands.
U Zelené ratolesti on Husova Avenue is a coaching inn of 1821 that today holds a guesthouse with a restaurant — and in 1838 Vojtěch Lanna had a track of the horse-drawn railway brought onto its courtyard.
Lanna’s father Tadeáš built it, and the courtyard with stables, stores, workshops and flats for coachmen was made for horses, wagons and goods, not for guests. Over two hundred years almost everything then took its turn: a flax spinning mill, a theatre, a bus terminus that was mockingly called U zelené větve, and a scale factory that in the 1920s made a thousand scales a year. In January 1922 the famous puppeteer Jindřich Kopecký played here; he was seventy-six.
Today the rear building holds a guesthouse with nine rooms and at the front a restaurant. Nothing of the rails is to be seen; the stop lives in the building and courtyard.
In 1821 Tadeáš Lanna built it as a coaching inn. In 1831 Vojtěch Lanna had it substantially rebuilt. The Budějovice–Linz horse railway mainly hauled salt; Lanna was a major shareholder and in 1835–1846 held the lease of operations and relay service. He pushed to extend the line from Česká street to his own inn. In 1838 a siding reached this courtyard.
Railway, wagons and river met in one yard — unique in the town. The inn still stands as a guesthouse; the courtyard still reads as logistics space, not only hospitality.
On site
The building stands and works — a guesthouse and food business. You can come in. Look at the courtyard and the historic coach house. Those spaces were not made for guests but for horses, wagons and goods. Try to pace where the siding…
Timeline
- 1821 — Tadeáš Lanna staví zájezdní hostinec Zum grünen Ast
- 1825 — začíná stavba koněspřežky pod Gerstnerem
- 1831 — Vojtěch Lanna nechává hostinec přestavět podle návrhu Josefa Sandnera
- 1832 — koněspřežka zahajuje nákladní provoz
- 1835–1846 — Lanna má pronajatý provoz a přípřežní službu koněspřežky
- 1838 — sem přivedena manipulační kolej; zboží se překládá na lodě a formanské vozy
- dnes — v objektu penzion a gastro provoz
Sources
- https://ceskobudejovicky.denik.cz/zpravy-region/budejovice-pred-sto-lety-dil-128-u-zelene-ratolesti-byla-prvni-vyrobna-vah/ — Jan Schinko: přádelna lnu, divadlo, autobusová konečná „U zelené větve", výroba vah Jindřicha Mrázka, Jindřich Kopecký 24. 1. 1922 (5. 8. 2026)
- https://en.uzeleneratolesti.cz/ — penzion s 9 pokoji, restaurace
- https://www.encyklopedie.c-budejovice.cz/clanek/u-zelene-ratolesti — klíčový zdroj: stavba 1821 Tadeášem Lannou, přestavba 1831 podle Josefa Sandnera, stáje a sklady a dílny a byty pro kočí, Lanna prosadil prodloužení z České ulice a roku 1838 sem byla přivedena manipulační kolej, překládka na lodě a formanské vozy. Heslo odkazuje na Theodor Žákavec, Lanna, 1936
- https://encyklopedie.c-budejovice.cz/clanek/lanna-adalbert-vojtech — pronájem provozu koněspřežky 1835–1846
- https://www.uzeleneratolesti.cz/kontakt.html — adresa Husova třída 1847/5, současný provoz