Novomlýnská vodárenská věž Water tower

Welcome, distinguished visitors. Stop for a moment, take a breath and look ahead. You are now facing one of the most fascinating and at the same time the least well-known pearls of Prague architecture. In front of you is Novomlýnská vodárenská věž, which dominates the atmosphere of the entire Petra district. It is a building that carries centuries of Prague history, fighting nature and human ambition. Feel its potency and imagine how important it was at a time when water was not only available by turning the tap, but was a rare and carefully guarded source of life for the whole city.

To understand why this tower is even standing here, we have to go back deep into the past in our thoughts, until the fifth century of the fifteenth year. The first mention of the Novomlín Water Plant dates back to 1484. At that time, however, the tower did not look as you see it today. Originally, it was a wooden structure that, while fulfilling its purpose, was not created for eternity. Its main task was to supply the lower New Town with Prague water. Water was the key to hygiene, craft and survival at the time, and therefore the construction of an efficient distribution system was a priority of the city.

But, as the turn of the 16th and seventeenth centuries approached, the city's needs grew, and so did the builders' ambitions. The wooden structure was no longer sufficient, so it was replaced by a stone tower. This new building was not just a practical improvement. It became the highest and most expensive of all Prague waterworks. Imagine the boom and investment the city has put into this project. The tower was supposed to be a symbol of stability and prosperity, a stone guardian of liquid gold that flowed into the houses of the people of New Town.

Now please look up. Follow the tower line to its peak. The whole building is 42 meters. Notice how it rises above the surrounding collateral. At the very top you can see a unique element called this year's fight. It's basically a small summer house, raised above a city that served to relax and observe the surroundings. It is an extraordinary contrast - in the lower floors of the tower there was a hard technical process of pumping and distributing water while at the top, in the summer house, one could seek peace and admire the panorama of Prague.

But the history of this place is not only a story about growth and beauty, but also about dramatic breakdowns. If you look at the solid walls that surround you now, you might think this tower has always stood still. But the truth is much more dramatic. In the seventeenth century, namely the second February of 1655, the city hit a devastating flood. The water combined with the ice stucco, the huge pieces of ice that flowed through the river and hit the ground, developed the power of the tower to tear and collapse. Imagine the noise, the dust, and the chaos that must have lived through the surrounding streets at that time when this highest Prague waterworks collapsed to the ground.

But the city was unwilling to accept this loss. Soon after the disaster, work on reconstruction began. From 1658 to 1660, the tower was rebuilt under the guidance of a builder named Jan Decapauli. It was his hands and his planning that returned the tower to its shape and ensured that he could serve the people of Prague again. Jan Decapauli has put its experience into the building and thanks to it we can admire this building today in its present form. It is a testament to human endurance and the ability to rebuild what nature destroyed, but what was necessary for society.

Now, I want to draw your attention to one detail, which is a real world rarity, and which you will probably not see anywhere else. Once you enter and climb the sixth floor, you find yourself in a representative room. This room is surrounded by 12 windows. For the water tower, such a design is quite unusual. Most of the similar structures were purely functional, with minimal holes to ensure water stability and protection. Here, however, we will find an area that acts as a nobleman's salon rather than as part of a water supply system. Twelve windows release light into the space and offer a view which must have been absolutely fascinating at the time of its creation. It is an element of luxury in the heart of the technical building, which makes the Novomrnská Tower unique not only in Prague but also in the whole world.

Today, when you look at this tower, you will realise that it is the only preserved Prague water tower that is currently open to the public. All other similar buildings either disappeared in a flood of time or remained closed in the eyes of the curious. You have the extraordinary opportunity to enter the space that once beat the heart of the Prague tap.

At present, the tower is no longer used for water distribution, but it has become a home for culture and education. In 2017, a multimedia exhibition called Prague was opened. This exhibition will guide you through tragic and inspiring moments of Prague history, when the city fought fire and other disasters. It is very symbolic that this exhibition is based right here in a building that has experienced the destructive force of nature in the past in the form of floods and ice. The tower continues to perform its role as a guardian of memory, only no longer guarding water, but stories about the people who built this city, loved and saved in crises.

So imagine this building as a bridge between different ages. From the wooden beams of the fifth century, to the stone expansion of the Renaissance and Baroque, to the disaster of 1655, to the modern technology of today's times. Novomlýnská vodárenská věž is a silent witness to how Prague changed, how it grew and how it learned to overcome obstacles.

Now that you know her story, her past wounds and her unique beauty, we invite you to examine her closely. Come in, feel the cold stone walls and climb up to those 12 windows on the sixth floor. Take a look from the years to the roofs of Prague and try to feel the same peace that people were looking for hundreds of years ago. Let the atmosphere of Peter's Quarter consume you and let this tower tell you its other secrets.

Thank you for spending these moments with us at the New Mill Water Tower. We wish you a pleasant exploration trip and remember to note every detail of this unique building. See you in the next corner of our beautiful city.