Vltava

The Vltava (IPA: /vəlˈtɑvə/; Czech pronunciation: [ˈvl̩tava]; German: Moldau, IPA: [ˈmɔldaʊ]) is the longest river within the Czech Republic, running southeast along the Bohemian Forest and then north across Bohemia, through Český Krumlov, České Budějovice and Prague, and finally merging with the Elbe at Mělník. It is commonly referred to as the Czech national river.

Course

The Vltava river is 430 kilometres (270 mi) long and drains an area about 28,090 square kilometres (10,850 sq mi) in size, over half of Bohemia and about a third of the Czech Republic's entire territory. As it runs through Prague, the river is crossed by 18 bridges (including the famous Charles Bridge, shown below) and covers 31 kilometres (19 mi) within the city. The water from the river was used for drinking until 1912, when the Vinohrady Water Tower ceased pumping operations.

Several dams were built on it in the 1950s. The Orlík Dam supports the largest reservoir on the Vltava by volume, while the Lipno Dam in the Bohemian Forest (Czech: Šumava) retains the largest reservoir by area. North of Prague the Štěchovice Reservoir has been built over the site of the St John's Rapids. The river also features numerous locks and weirs that help mitigate its flow from 1,172 metres (3,845 ft) in elevation at its source near the German border to 155 metres (509 ft) at its mouth in Mělník.

Vltava (steamboat)

Vltava has been in operation since 1940 when the Prague Steamboat Company decided to renovate its fleet. After World War II there were 17 steamboats altogether but as time went by they decayed and most of them were set aside. Only two of them are still in use – Vltava and Vyšehrad.

Vltava belongs to a group of rather small steamboats. It had to be shorter and narrower in order to be able to sail easily and safely through the very busy locks on the route from Prague to Štěchovice for which it had originally been built. Because there were very low bridges on the river it did not even have a sightseeing deck. It was made in the PRAGA shipyard in Prague under the supervision of the chief constructor Mr Benbenek. After some delay it was finally floated out on 27 August 1940. It was worth 2.7 million Czech crowns.

During World War II it had to be renamed along with many other boats. Its name was Moldau I (Moldau is a German word for the Vltava). The steamboat kept running on its route to Štěchovice until 1990 when it was put aside after an accident. In 1991 it was partially repaired and started operating as a restaurant boat. The last reconstruction was carried out in 2007 when the steamboat was completely reconstructed to resemble the one from 1940 as closely as possible.