Vchynicko-tetovský plavební kanál Water structure

Vchynicko-tetovský plavební kanál is a water work in Šumava, which in the past used to sail wood from forests. The channel is 13.6 kilometres long and crosses the waterproof section of the river Vydra under Antégle and connects the river Vydra with the river Křemelna. The construction is a fascinating engineering solution for transporting valuable forest material from mountain areas.

The channel was built in 1799-1800 on the manor of Prince Joseph II from Schwarzenberg. The builder of the construction was engineer Josef Rosenauer. This is the second great sailing work on Schwarzenberg Territories - the first was the Schwarzenberg Navigation Channel. Both projects represent the top examples of water management in European mountain regions.

The channel begins at the Castle Bridge (Rechle) at an altitude of 940 metres between Blue and Antégle. The water from Vydra is drawn here through the flow object to the trough leading along the left bank. When the flow rate is not enlarged, the bottom of the river remains empty - water is added to the stream and Hamer stream. Clean water from the Šumava peatlands flows freely through the canal. The first section leads north, later turns southwest. At a length of 3.2 kilometres, it is held directly at an altitude of about 930 metres, with a slight drop of only 3 per cent. The coryto is 3-5 metres wide with a sandy bottom and a depth of approximately one metre.

The construction changes at the first slide under the bridge for the tourist route to Vchynice-Tetov. A narrow trough of 130 centimeters wide and 70 centimeters deep is made of huge extermination granite blocks. Slide of 540 meters long leads west and converts channel 23 meters below. The gout has been historically protected by a sink that has been partially preserved. The water was released into the slide after the floating wood was accumulated. At present, the trough is covered with concrete plates.

Behind the slide, the channel extends to another 5.8 kilometers - the so-called Upper Channel - at an altitude of around 910 metres. The route leads between Adam's mountain and the Roundnose, surpasses the Hradec stream along the arched historical bridge and surrounds the Church Hill. Since the 1930s, the water has been guided by underground pipelines into the storage tank of the Vydra power plant at Čeňka's mill. The second slide, 570 meters long, converts water another 47 meters below.

Today, the Mosaic ownership channel is created: the part for electricity production has been owned by ČEZ Oz's closed investment fund since 2019, the rest being managed by the Administration of the National Park of Šumava. The visitor can walk through it on marked tourist routes, where its technical elements and landscape sculptures create pleasant sets for exploring the history of Šumava and the European tradition of water management.