The oldest of the water tanks was built in 1874 according to a design by the Londoner Thomas Docwry on the northwestern side of the complex, close to Tvrdého Street. Among its brethren, it stands out with a construction inspired by England, and it represents a unique water management work of European significance. The load-bearing system of massive brick walls is lightened by so-called mouthing windows. The floor is not flat; it consists of counter-arches, which, together with the walls and vaults, form a perfect and statically functional whole. The water tank has one tank divided into eleven parallel sections connected by a corridor on the north side of the building. Thanks to its precise construction, it creates the impression of an infinite and continuously receding space. Its approximate dimensions are 45 × 45 m, the vault reaches a height of 6.5 m, and the volume is more than 9.5 million liters.
Designer
Thomas Docwry
Volume
9.5 million liters
Dimensions
45 × 45 m
Height 6.5 m
Material
Red fired bricks
To this day, the water tank has been preserved thanks to the use of the best construction technology from red fired bricks. These are hand-made, so-called sharply fired bricks, which have undergone a heat treatment of more than 1000 °C. In this process, they were literally fused into brick stone, designed for constructions and masonry that are exposed to extreme climatic conditions. The bricks for the constructions were supplied by several Brno brick factories and come from the same period as the bricks used for the construction of the Red Church or the Turnhalle (gymnasium) under Špilberk.
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