Technical Cultural Heritage on the Elbe-Vltava Waterway

Abstract

The article presents the principal objectives and current results of the project “Documentation and Presentation of Technical Cultural Heritage on the Elbe-Vltava Waterway”, which is part of the National and Cultural Identity programme administered by the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic. The historical development of the modifications of navigable sections of the Elbe and the Vltava Rivers documents that its beginnings coincide with the beginnings of the settlement of the river valleys in the Middle Ages. These modifications were related to the human need to use rivers for navigation and hydropower generation and went through an interesting development throughout the Medieval Times. The lock structures situated on the Elbe-Vltava Waterway represent extensive and unique technical heritage which still serves its original purpose. The locks are typically composed of a weir structure, a lock and a hydroelectric power plant. The project’s objective is to document the existing technical heritage at the level of individual locks and their construction and technological elements. Furthermore, attention will be focused on the identification of endangered structures on the Elbe-Vltava waterway which no longer meet the present-day functional or capacity requirements and which will probably need to undergo sensitive modernisations in the future in the context of their cultural and historical value. The project intends to present and introduce these technical monuments to the general public. The presentation of the structures includes the historical development of their design, the description of the original technological elements and their present-day role in water transport, and the exploitation of their potential for recreation and tourism.