September 17: Plzen

Our big excursion for the day was to explore the underground tunnels beneath the central square in Pilsen. The original tunnels were constructed in the mid 13th century with amendments made throughout history, including a major renovation in 1989 to make them more safe and stable. 

The tunnels were originally constructed as cellars for homes and businesses around the square and also were used as safe storage of weapons and food supplies in times of seige. In the past, Pilsen had a double wall around the inner city and a moat to keep out attacking marauders. Beer was also made in Pilsen and was aged in barrels in the cellars. Originally, the cellars belonged to individual homes or shops but were eventually expanded to connect all the basements, and now there are 13.2 km of tunnels below the square. While we walked around the tunnels, there was reference to the buildings that were above and which we had just seen as we waked around the square. 

There are also about 320 water wells along the tunnels and, as intimated by the guide, depositories for garbage and other waste. In many places, we could see stairs going up to the ground level where the stairs entered the homes or shops above. Most of the wells held clear, prisine water but some were scummy with algae. There were also many historical artifacts found, including weapons and bones of animals that were used in the construction. it would have been hard, manual work, digging out the rock and then shoring up the ceilings with archways. In the renovation of 1989,  a type of plaster was applied to the walls and bricks were used to provide support. There was a lot of water running along the floor and down steps in places. The water was worse than usual but flowing water was always running through the tunnels.

The Pilsen Opera House.

Cathedral of St. Bartholemew. It has Czechia's tallest spire and was built in the 13th century.

Pilsen city hall.

These boots were made for walkin' but I doubt very far.

Map of the square and underground tunnels.

Tools for excavating.

Horse's skull. Our guide noted it was smaller than today's horse heads.

Original wood pipes to move water.

I note for your reference that these steps are ascending.

These hand carved sandstone shots we hurled through the air by catapult and had a range of 500 metres,

These shots, much larger than those above, were hurled via slingshot and had a range of about 150 metres.

The "keyhole passage" with a narrow access for feet and a wider access for the torso.

Original stones from the construction.

While this waterwheel was not original construction, it was build using techniques of the 15th century.

One of the many wells. Our guide was unclear about the depth of the wells but intidated the maximum depth of the cellars was 17 metres. The wells woud have been much deeper than that.

"Baby sized" shots. I dont think that helmet would have provided much protection.

A carved stone for a corner on a house.

This was a store room.

Implements for removing water from the tunnels.

On our walk back to the apartment, we spotted this delicacy in a store window. "Sustainable protein". The best Czech grasshopper larvae tht money can buy!