The detailed mapped waterway captures the Elbe river from Pardubice to the state border with Germany in the length of 240 kilometers and the 84-kilometer section of the Vltava river from Štěchovice to Mělník. A total of 24 experts are participating in the project, in addition to specialists and students from the Faculty of Civil Engineering, they also come from the Elbe river basin administration, Vltava river basin administration, the Directorate of Waterways and the State Navigation Administration.
"We were inspired to develop the application by the care given to historic waterways in the UK in the context of tourism, where information centers are full of leaflets and brochures. At the same time, we realized that our Elbe-Vltava waterway is unique and no less interesting in the European context than the English one, and at the same time the history of its development is remarkable," doc. Pavel Fošumpaur describes one of the impulses of the project, who also teaches the subject ‘Construction of Waterways’ at the Faculty of Civil Engineering.
The web application Technical Monuments of the Elbe-Vltava Waterway comprehensively presents the entire waterway, the history of its origin and focuses on individual architectural monuments. The visitor of the website will find a clear and very detailed database of water works. For each work, information on the construction time, its history, the volume of any weir reservoir, hydroelectric power plant, lock chamber or a fish pass is added. There are also personalities behind the creation of the work. For tourists, the application will be a welcome source of inspiration for trips, as it offers a large number of links to attractions in the area that can be visited. You can admire the technical ingenuity of individual water works, but also castles, chateaux and historic towns around the river.
Those interested in history will be pleased with documents such as maps, mentions in old publications and other information that the team was able to find. Many of them are unique, as Pavel Fošumpaur points out: “The oldest materials from the turn of the 19th and 20th century are very instructive and charming. For example, the annual reports of the Commission for Sewerage of the Vltava and Elbe Rivers in Bohemia, which was established during the reign of the emperor in 1896 and was to prepare and implement a plan for the construction of all locks on this waterway. A matter of curiosity is also a dictionary of professional terms, associated with the construction of waterways, clearly explaining the various concepts to the general public.
Most of the buildings built still serve today, and after minor modifications, they even correspond to the parameters of the modern waterway forming the EU's trans-European transport network. "The Elbe-Vltava waterway and the constructions on it are important not only for navigation, but also for protection against floods, water retention in the landscape, production of renewable water energy, surface water abstraction and recreation. It is an important multifunctional undertaking, "says doc. Pavel Fošumpaur.
The Technical Monument of the Elbe-Vltava Waterway is one of the outputs of the project ‘Documentation and Presentation of Technical Cultural Heritage on the Elbe-Vltava Waterway’ (project no .: DG18P02OVV004) taking place in 2018 - 2022 within the program MK ČR NAKI II. The culmination of the project will be the organization of a large exhibition in 2022, with a number of lectures planned at high schools and universities.
More info at fsv.cvut.cz and lvvc.cz.
