The attention of Praguers was turned to the Water Museum from the morning

From this morning, Praguers of all ages have been turning their attention to the Museum of the Prague Waterworks. It is open for the public only on special occasions. This time it is at the occasion of World Water Day. The open house period to which entry is free continues until Sunday.

Although advertisements promise that visitors will familiarize themselves with the Prague water system the exhibit is actually much more instructive. Visitors will be able to view photos of the aqueducts of ancient Rome as well as portions of water pipes made of burnt clay which came from the ancient city of Troy from around 1200 B.C.

The exhibit tracks the evolution of Prague's waterworks right from the first private aqueducts as early as the 12^th century, the Vltava waterworks of the Renaissance period, the waterworks projects of the 19^th century as well as the present system supplying Prague with water.

Exhibited for the first time is the original pumping mechanism from the Klatovy waterworks dating from 1830 and part of the Prague Castle water pipes from the period of Emperor Rudolf II. Three-dimensional objects are supplemented by copies of unique archive material and a wealth of historical photographs.

Experts regard the collection of water pipes, closing valves, water meters and other historical instruments and devices as extremely valuable. Models of pumping stations, old wells and a reconstruction of a pulley are on display and visitors can even try some of them out.

The Museum is located in the - nowadays historical - building of the waterworks in Podolí, designed by architect Antonín Engel in the nineteen twenties. The interior of the filtration plant is separated from the exhibition area by a glass wall and in this way visitors have a view of the "Engel cathedral" with its functioning filters. Children visiting the museum today enjoyed the aquarium with fish and Josef Lada's pictures most of all. The hall where movies about water structures and installations were shown was also full all day.

The basis for the museum exhibition are exhibits assembled for the Jubilee Exhibition which took place in Prague in 1891. In the subsequent years, the waterworks engineers of Prague continued to collect further items and to exhibit them occasionally. The Museum first opened in 1952 on Národní třída. It moved to Podolí in the nineties after Engel's building was refurbished.