Hracholusky Water Reserve

Perhaps it is only by looking at the dam and its height that one realises that the landscape here was once utterly different. Let us now look at the history of this structure, which was one of the biggest to change the landscape west of Pilsen. The dam has been erected on the Mže River, where originally there was a relatively high weir about 10 km above the present dam, but it was unable to cover the increasing consumption of water on its lower reaches at the end of the 1950s.

Therefore, the Regional National Committee decided in 1959 to build this dam. It was designed by the company Hydroprojekt and put in operation in 1964. Although it does not seem like it to many holidaymakers today, the biggest purpose of this construction was to store water for the Skoda factory in Pilsen, irrigation and heating plant. Among other tasks were flood mitigation, fishing and recreation. Thus, for example, the villages of Dolany or Těchoděly, a number of mills, cottages (some of which were moved above the water level) were flooded and several roads had to be discontinued in order to get water to the Škoda plant. From just a few photographs we know what the Mže River valley looked like. Today, more emphasis is placed on recreation and the Hracholusky WR, not very far from Pilsen, is used for this purpose as much as possible. However, it is still apparent (from e.g. steep slopes above the water line, rocky bottom) that the lake was not primarily designed for recreation.

Hracholusky WR in numbers

• The reservoir holds a permanent water volume of 6.58 million cu.m., with a maximum water level of 358.37 metres above sea level.
• The maximum length of the reservoir reaches 22.2 kilometres with submerged area of 490 hectares.
• The dam crown is 26.45 metres above the original terrain and 270 metres long.
• - The hydropower plant consists of a vertical Kaplan turbine with a maximum capacity of 2.9 MW.