At the Waterfountain

(They used to dance at the Waterfountain even in the year 1950)

In Polečnice valley, close to Nové Dobrkovice, there is a building known as At the Waterfountain. There is, however, no waterfountain in the vicinity, and it looks as if there never was.

Let\'s take a look at the history of the structure. We start at the Castle Gardens in Český Krumlov, located a few hundred meters away. When the Park, under the aristocrats of Eggenberg, was established in the second half of the 17th century, there was a pond sunk in its upper part. The incoming water was drawn there with the help of a wooden pipeline all the way from the distant forests near Novosedly.

Here, as was elsewhere, time worked against it. By the end of the 1820\'s the pipeline was partly rotten and it almost couldn\'t pipe any water to the pond. The manufacture and exchange of new tubes would have cost too much, and for this reason the estate administration did not recommend it to Adam Franz zu Schwarzenberg the owner. Having thus made the decision, the administration had to arrange for some compensatory water source. The solution was not far away. K. G. Schindler, a mine administrator in Ratibořské hory close to Tábor, was to attempt to draw water from small fish ponds near Dobrkovice (they still existed there many years after War World II) with the help of pumping station across the hill to the Castle Park. Schindler\'s project involved pumping the water over a rise, that time called On the Watch (they used to catch little birds on lime or to an hunting net), nowadays the so-called Little Bird Castle. From there the water was to flow by itself to the Castle Pond.

The prince agreed with the mine administrator\'s proposal - from the beginning of September 1730, they began to dig a ditch for incoming water via the former mill of Dobrkovice to the little fish ponds. Masons prepared a foundation of masonry, and carpenters began to do their preparatory work.

The most important equipment was four brass suction tubes and valves. For this an agreement was concluded with Václav Koller, a bellmaker from České Budějovice. The technical system of Schindler´s machine consisted of a water wheel which set a massive iron piston into motion in each suction tube. The sucked water was then pumped away by the pistons into tubes connecting the machine all the way to the pump tower on a hill. By the end of 1730, the Castle Pond was cleaned and better paved (this pavement, consisting of big stone slabs, was destroyed due to the pond bottom excavation in the 50s).

The foundation, room, and tower of the building where the machine was located were completed. In the spring of 1731, a large water wheel was made and the contracted equipment was supplied by the bellmaker. The machine was permanently put into operation on the 19th of November 1731, after the necessary repairs and adjustments (for example the wooden tubes of the pump tower couldn\'t handle the pressure and had to be replaced by metal ones). It brought 3000 buckets, that is approximately 1700 hl of water, in 24 hours to the Park.

At the time the machine was an unusual mechanism and people came from far away to observe it. With such a number of visitors, some refreshments had to be arranged for them, and beer was the first choice. The local princely brewery thus set up a wooden booth to sell its beer there.

The pump station, together with its big supply room at Little Bird Castle, was closed down in the year 1827. The room is visible, overgrown with trees, even today. There is nothing preserved from the technical equipment or construction. The water pipeline, going from the hill towards the Castle Park, may even be still hidden in the earth.

The modest refreshment stall, after some time, became a popular destination of Sunday promenades for Český Krumlov burghers. In the 1920s, it was replaced by a solid brick building with a taproom and dance hall. Shooting competitions by the sharp-fusiliers association, dance parties and even balls used to be regularly organized there.

The restaurant At the Waterfountain, or just simply Waterfountain, existed until 1950, when the Sunday dance parties were forbidden due to the repeatedly-occuring fights between local garrison soldiers and civilians.

See also :
Castle waterworks

(jo)