inundační mosty západně od Želivi Inundation bridge

Inundation bridges No. 129-007 and No. 129-009 are stone arches from the end of the 19th century, located in the village Želiv in the district of Pelhřimov. These almost identical objects are used to overcome the flood area of the river Želivky and are an important element of historical transport infrastructure.

In the middle of the 19th century, the site of the original ford across the river Želiv under ŽelivI found a wooden bridge. Around 1880, the river was bridged by three stone arches, two of which were inundable and the middle bridged the river's very trough. The construction took place during the period of development of the infrastructure in Austria-Hungary monarchy, when the industrial revolution and urbanisation in the Czech Republic had modernised roads for better connection of various parts of the empire.

Both inundation bridges are constructively identical. These are buildings with one slightly compressed arch made of quarry stone with upper bridge. The front arch rings and edges are removed from the quarry blocks, and the thickness of the arch ranges from 0,65 to 0,85 metres. Two-sided quarry-stone triangular wings range from the adjacent terrain to the road crown. Half-circle stone gargoyles were used to drain the road. The edges of bridges are today made of modern concrete with Roman thresholds. The arches above the terrain are approximately 2.7 metres, the width of the arches is 7.6 metres and the total length of the bridge in the road level is about 11.6 metres.

While the inundation bridges maintained their original form, the middle bridge with a larger arch did not suit the load capacity and was often damaged during spring floods. It was therefore replaced by a wooden bridge on vertical stone supports, which in 1935 was subsequently replaced by a bridge of reinforced concrete beam elements. The whole set of bridges was repaired in 1965, 1990 and 2005.

The legal protection of objects was complicated by administrative errors. Bridge 129-009 was registered in 1988, but this entry was recognised as invalid on the basis of the 2020 judicate and the object is now listed as not protected in the Central List of Cultural Monuments. Bridge No. 129-007 was declared a cultural monument by the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic in 2013.

Today the inundation bridges are located on Road II / 129 on the left and right banks of the river Želivky. They still serve in the flood area and represent technical evidence of the way the roads were solved during the Austrian-Hungarian monarchy.

These buildings are valuable testimonies about the history of Czech travel construction and stone construction. Visiting this place offers the possibility to observe functional architecture that has lasted over a century.