The new lock chamber in Hněvkovice will allow ships to travel to Prague

Týn nad Vltavou - Smaller boats can today sail from České Budějovice all the way to Prague and further into Europe. This will be made possible by the opening of a new lock at the Hněvkovice weir. It is the last lock on the Vltava waterway from České Budějovice to Prague. Hundreds of people witnessed the ceremonial opening.

"Boats up to three meters wide and weighing 3.5 tons are capable of crossing the dam reservoirs Orlík and Slapy and will make it to Prague and thus to all of Europe. It is not an exaggeration to say that from today, České Budějovice are connected by waterway to Hamburg," said Jan Bukovský, spokesman for the Directorate of Waterways of the Czech Republic, to ČTK. The Directorate of Waterways plans to build large lifts at Slapy and Orlík in the future, also for cruise liners. The Minister of Transport, Dan Ťok (ANO), also attended the ceremony today.

For the festive opening of the new lock, several dozen boats that set sail from Prague this week came to Hněvkovice. Among them was also a replica of a historic boat made in the 19th century for the South Bohemian industrialist, shipmaster, and builder Vojtěch Lanna. The crew consisted of theater artists portraying Lanna and his entourage. "They went to check if it was built properly and will contribute to the continuation of the tradition of sailing on the Vltava," Bukovský jokingly said.

The Vltava has been a heavily used waterway connecting cities along its course since ancient history. It gradually served for the transportation of salt, wood, and other materials from South Bohemia to Prague. Navigation on the Vltava was definitively hindered by the construction of the Vltava Cascade, a system of nine waterworks from Lipno to the reservoir in Vrané near Prague, which began construction in the 1930s. The last raft passed through the under-construction Orlík reservoir on September 12, 1960.

According to several tourism experts, the completion of the lock in Hněvkovice may attract a significant number of tourists to the Vltava. "In comparison, for example, with the Baťa Canal, which is visited by around 80,000 people annually, the Vltava has even greater potential," said Markéta Kubešová from the Vltava Infopoint earlier. The river and its surroundings from České Budějovice to the Orlík reservoir could attract up to 100,000 tourists a year, according to her.

The renewal of navigation on the Vltava began in 2006. The construction of the lock in Hněvkovice alone, which started last spring, cost approximately 200 million crowns. According to some opinions, the navigation of the river may further increase interest in the South Bohemian region.