Underground city below the city. The exhibition in the Vrtbovská Garden shows hidden Prague
Prague is a city of unprecedented beauty and picturesqueness. But many times even the people of Prague have no idea what the underground hides behind their eyes behind a strange, picturesque and historical nook, which can only be seen through photographs by experts in the relevant professions. Access to many is forbidden. A tasting of where such places are located, and what it roughly looks like in them, is provided by a photographic exhibition in the Vrtbovská Garden called Město pod městem.
Without taking this into account at all, it goes without saying that it is found under virtually every step we take. We are talking about intricate system of corridors and galleries of sewerage and sewerage networks, which at a depth of units and tens of meters underground line below Prague in incredible length about 4,500 probably corridors. “The most interesting the historical part from the period 1896–1909 according to the project of ing. Lindley is approximately 100 km long, mainly below the center of Prague, “revealed the authors of the exhibition Jan Kamenický and Slávek Pauk. “It simply came to our notice then tailor-made egg profiles for Prague made of 2x fired acid-resistant bricks, the so-called bell tower. The ellipsoidal shape of the ovoids was not chosen at random – it is best to statically withstand the pressure of the soil. “
The sewer network in Prague consists of 7 main sewers. The oldest of them is drain A, which it is led from the Old Town Square by a bus under the Čech Bridge across the underground of the Letná Plain, from where it leads to the wastewater treatment plant in Bubeneč. It was excavated in a mining way, and drains both the Old and New Towns, including the Lesser Town. “This section has not needed major repairs since its construction. After 120 years of use, it is still intact, which testifies to the skills of our ancestors and well-chosen material., ”Dušan Záhrobský from the Department of Survey of the Sewerage Network of Prague Waterworks and Sewerage told Blesk earlier.
Darkness like in a sack, musty abrasion, strange sponges sprouting on the walls and a sharp ditch at the level of the Vltava bottom. This is the oldest trunk leading under the Letna Plain. David Zima
You the oldest of the underground spaces under Prague were often created for funeral purposes. There are few churches in Prague under which there would be no burial crypts. “The principle of burying the dead in underground crypts in the foundations of churches spread in Prague during the 17th and 18th centuries. – in the Baroque period – to such an extent that almost every baroque church has its own underground burial ground, “Presents the authors of the exhibition. The remains of both burghers, but especially church officials, were stored in them.
They sleep their eternal sleep too under the church of Our Lady Victorious and St. Antonín Paduánský in Malá Strana. It is said that it should lie in the foundations of the church an estimated 350 dead bodies, some of which are even mummified, and that’s because sophisticated ventilation system. “Sophisticated vents and shafts have been built to keep the proud dry air and the dead bodies in the best possible condition. Some even state that it was possible to recognize the expressions of those people, “said Marie Müllerová, who told Bleska the interest in the underground in 2017 as part of the To the Underground event.
On the contrary, they are examples of a recent period in history anti-nuclear shields or otherwise called permanent pressure resistant shelters. “These are special, so-called guard objects, whose primary purpose was protection of persons in hiding against pressure waves, radioactive contamination, light and heat impulses and the effects of chemical and biological weapons, ”States Kamenický and Pauk. Their construction began in the second half of the 20th century as a result of the Cold Wars, when the atomic bomb was the most destructive force known to cover the population.
There are about 200 such shelters in Prague – allows their networks to include the subway. Biggest of the covers is located under Folimanka, Parukářka or Vítkov. The latter is specific in that its communists did not complete. Shelter with an exchange of 1600 m², which was built in parallel with the Žižkov tunnel, was originally supposed to be twice like that, but only a small part was excavated, which in case of emergency was to serve as a morgue. However, they have been using these spaces since the 1970s laboratory of the Institute of Nuclear Physics of the Academy of Sciences with a particle accelerator. “Thanks to the radiation of the accelerator, we have already determined, for example, the origin of the prehistoric bracelet, how much nitrogen is contained in the mushrooms, or the reason for the cracking of the casings at dawn,” David Chvátil, head of the microtron laboratory, told Blesk.
An imaginary sci-fi phenomenon that is a thing of the past. We are talking about pipeline post, which in its time belonged to the equipment of many world capitals – Prague included. We would trace the beginnings of its functioning as early as 1887, when with specially modified piping, by which electric motors driven blowers create vacuum, chased the first mail. She traveled to her destination speed of ten meters per second, packed in a special case. “Originally they were made of celluloid, later of duralumin. Their length was 26–28 cm and their diameter was approximately 6 cm, ”says Pouk and Slavinský.
At the end of the 20th century, it was below the levels of the Prague surface approximately 60 in the manner of a mail pipe. “It was sent to him every year an average of 420 thousand cases, “Presents the authors of the exhibition. Were it not for the floods of 2002, it probably operated according to the pipeline system to this day. On the other hand, the pipeline system or in other words pneumatic mail is still used, for example, by some of Prague’s hospitals.
Pipe post in Prague: This is where your blood flies! And the migrants took over on the Vltava Matěj Smlsal, Lukáš Červený, David Vaníček
Who ever heard of Vyšehrad, he knows him primarily as a pompous citadel towering majestically on a promontory above the Vltava. In its walls, steep and several meters high, it is located kilometers of underground corridors and spaceswhich originated during the 17th and 18th centuries. Cast one of them is the public accessible – in the so-called Gorlice there are six original baroque statues from Charles Bridge. However, the public cannot look at the essence of most of the Vyšehrad underground – in some cases, it does not even have a way. “Overall, about 17% of the local underground is explored, ”Petr Kučera, the current director of the Vyšehrad National Cultural Monument, said earlier for Blesk.
And what about the tunnels that the experts have already managed to explore? “They are through underground passages, which have the task of allowing unnoticed movements of the crew in the area of the fortress, ”Presents Pouk with Slavinsky. Interestingly, they sought to use them during World War II the Nazis, which they built in the walls above the Institute for Mother and Child Care anti-aircraft background of the hospital. According to Kučera, there is a capacity of 300 to 400 people. In their corridors, the layout of some places is still visible, including the toilet or electricity. “More access roads were cut, but many were walled up,” Petr Kučera revealed. However, the remains of these entrances can now be seen with the naked eye while walking through the castle grounds.
In the past, more entries were made to the Podolsk casemates. These are walled up today, but also to the naked eye the former passage through neuninka.
Author: Lukáš Zima
It is not only the Vltava that flows through the territory of Prague. There are in fact many more of these streams, because almost all of them flow into the mentioned river, which springs in the Šumava meadows. Cranberry, Botič, Rokytka or Motolský stream – they all began to spring from under the ground even before its first inhabitants settled in Prague. On the contrary, many of them eventually succumbed to the pressure of civilization, and in some of the long sections, streams are led in artificial tunnels., meters below their natural natural riverbeds, through which the water rushed briskly centuries ago.
The most famous “victim” of progress is undoubtedly the creek Cranberries, which today Practically the whole flows through a long fragmented underground corridor. “Except for a few shorter sections, especially in the Jelení ditch we do not meet its water on the surface, “We draw the attention of the authors of the exhibition. “The most interesting underground part is undoubtedly the so-called passage through the chances – a baroque bastion in the northwestern forecourt of Prague Castle, where it was built on the underground gallery room for the location of the barrier device, which made it possible to flood the gallery and prevent the penetration of enemy troops into Prague. “
From the “underground” streams then the Motolský brook earned not very much attention, and in 2018 four reckless and reckless cashiers went to it.who underestimated the vagaries of the weather. Sudden the storm lifted the stream most often and two of them unfortunately found death in a strong stream from which there was no escape. Unfortunately, their death is the sad memento that, however tempting some underground spaces are for adventurous expeditions, the fact that the general public has forbidden access to them is not an unnecessary whim, but necessity. Only the exhibition, which further shows the public, for example, serves to look into these shots melts underground complexes built by the Nazis, collectors, through which utilities are run, or underground sandpit in Prosek or in Hloubětín.
Where: Vrtbovská Garden – Karmelitská 372/27, Malá Strana.
When: Until October 31, daily from 10 am to 6 pm.
Admission: Loosely.
The secrets and nooks, which are located in the Prague underground, are shown in the exhibition The City Under the City, which can be seen at the Vrtbovská Garden.
Author: Daniel Černovský