For the reconstruction of the mill by accident. Pbh started in Prague 7. For the building where we had our offices, we came up with the idea of a cultural center together with the Municipal Library in Prague and Radio Junior. Just because of covid, the general public was not allowed to use the building and it ended with him, recalled Pavel Kocourek, who works in a small IT company specializing in searchable and shared information.
Since the end of the nineties, we have been cooperating with the Municipal Library in Prague and Czech Radio, which is why we wanted to create a cultural center with them. And we started looking for a new place with du.
On his way to Prague 8, Pavel Kocourek parked on Elsnice Square and saw a burgeoning baroque sculpture in the distance. On the way back, he inspected the building from the outside and decided to find out more about Lwitov’s million.
The water mill on the edge of today’s Thomayer Gardens probably dates from the end of the 15th century, its current appearance from the mid-18th century. It took water from the Rokytnice river (now Rokytka) and was adjacent to the Libe fortress, around which the Libe settlement later grew.
The mill went through a series of reconstructions, over the decades it was destroyed and restored in 1651-52, the oldest surviving ones come from the 16th/17th century. a hundred years. It was renewed in 1744 when Libn was filled. Years later, the municipality built it in its current form.
The mill had six water wheels, flourished and changed owners. After two centuries of floods in the years 1784 and 1845, in 1872 the Vltava was regulated and the blind arm that surrounded the Jewish town of Libe and fed water to the mill was filled in. The ruined canal was also closed by a mill, and behind it a park was created called Thomayer’s Garden.
In 1883, Jchym Lwit bought the inn of the building. His name bears a million to this day, even though he built the bakery here. The municipality of Prask bought the building in 1906. In the 1950s, the national enterprise Zelenina Praha stored potatoes here, in the 1960s the building was used by the SK Neumann Theatre, now known as Divadlo pod Palmovkou, as a props warehouse.
In 1997, Prague 8 rehabilitated the building in order to preserve the monument and then sell it. In the summer of 2002, the houses for the guesthouse, the restaurant and the room were washed away by floods, during which the water rose up to the roofs. For twenty years, the building slowly fell into disrepair until it was discovered by Pavel Kocourek and Bro Riková and they began to negotiate with Mstská st Prague 8 about its use.
Oiven mill
When we first entered the mill 2.5 years ago, some of the walls were crumbling, others were damp and moldy, the basement was surrounded by homeless people, there was no sewage and electricity, Pavel Kocourek recalled.
He and his colleagues searched in the archives, together with the monuments they created the probable original form of the Baroque mill, and after a year they obtained a building permit for adaptation for contemporary use.
The designers estimated the reconstruction at 50 million, but we paid a quarter for it. We hired all the people ourselves, we found the building materials and equipment, for example, the wash basin in the toilets is an original beer cellar from a baroque farmhouse in Slapy. We originally dealt with it with water, but in the course of the reconstruction, various surprises appeared. After all, it is a public space and all safety measures must be followed, first by Pavel Kocourek.
The Great Lwitv mln has been protected as a monument since 1958, and the right must be approved by the Department of Industrial Monuments of the National Monument State, the Department of Monuments at the City Hall and the Prague 8 Building.
With a drink to the library
A small stand on the glass that originally turned off above the roof. From the road, one entered directly into the mill. Today, the high space with vaults serves as an architectural and cultural center, among other things, a new burst of folk music was created here. On the outside, report the windows under the ceiling and the stairs leading to the door and to the next room.
You go up the stairs through the original cellar to the first floor. The baroque style was held in the places of the daily entrance and toilets, this exception was built and later. A kind of entrance leads from the road above the building. Behind the original front door, you can drink vodka and heat a tiled stove.
A baroque house cannot be insulated, it blows through the old windows and holes in the doors, the thick walls accumulate heat and even moisture. The stove has historically been used and the space is gently heated. But we also have electric boilers ready for winter, Pavel Kocourek points out. Since the distribution and waste lines were being built in the evening, an intelligent house was used, which allows you to monitor the parameters of the building’s operation or change the intensity of the lighting.
The main hall in the basement serves as a community center and open library. After 30 years, Libe again has a branch of the Mstsk library in Prague, and they are equal to a completely unique concept. We are open every day from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., only on Mondays and from 1 p.m. The library is fully self-service, the librarian is available from 14:00 to 17:00, otherwise they are available by phone. We organize workshops, non-commercial and apolitical events, the children can enjoy themselves in the children’s corner, relax in the swings and play board games, each center is a grandmother for the children, explains Nikola Balcarov, head of the Velk mln branch.
You can also take your books outside or near the fireplace to sit on the sofa and chair, and on the other hand, you can go to the library with a selection of coffee from the cafe, where you can enjoy excellent coffee, beer from a local brewery, selected wines and domestic beer, samples and salty beer. We wanted to create a meeting place where you would like to go with your children, alone, for a meeting, to work, for culture or just to hang out, Pavel and Nikola agree.
