Zvuky Prahy / Sounds of Prague

A tunnel bringing water from the Helmovský weir from the left Vltava embankment, under Letná, and all the way to Stromovka park. The stole was made in the years 1584 - 1593. Rudolf II cultivated the Royal Game Preserve and had a large pond trenched in its lower part in 1584, which was supposed to be fed by water from the Vltava River via gravity, without the need to draw the water. The stole makes use of the river’s large gradient, as the difference between the water level at Vyšehrad and by Podbaba amounts to 12 m. Rudolf II ordered the difficult stole construction as early as in 1582 by the supreme mine master Lazar Ercker of Šrekenfelz and the supreme mine surveyor Jiří Oeder from Ústí. They ordered the needed technology in Kutná Hora and hired the best miners there. To accelerate the work in excavating the stole, there were 5 shafts dug from the surface at Letná, which were from 22 to 49 m deep, and the miners then drove the tunnel in both ways against each other. Each shaft had a shelter at the top, with a pulley to elevate the mined earth and to transport the miners.