History of the place
The Bohemian Sea near Komořany
Bohuslav Balbín, a Jesuit and Czech patriot, wrote about the Komořany Lake in the 17th century: „Bohemia has very few lakes and pools. Due to their small number and insignificance, the lakes do not even deserve a special list. However, in the Litoměřice region, behind Duchcov, you can see a singularly large lake, from which the river Bělá (today Bílina) flows. The inhabitants, who have long been allowed to fish there, unlike those who were not granted such an ancient right by their ancestors although they live on the shores, offer accounts of this lake, full of strange fish. Recently I came to a place where the locals showed me water bodies far from the lake; their water can never be pumped out. The reason is that whenever the waters of these ponds meet the waters of the lake pool, they connect through an underground path, and so the lake can continuously replenish water supply in those ponds."
The Komořany Lake has been here since time immemorial. It was formed in the Pleistocene (roughly 15,000 years ago) by the gradual thawing of permafrost. By its nature, it was a shallow lake fed and drained by the river Bílina. Its maximum size over the ages was almost 60 sq km, which made it the largest lake in Bohemia. In the High Middle Ages, Lake Komořany’s acreage stabilised at 20-25 sq km; for comparison, one of the largest water bodies in the Czech Republic is the Lipno reservoir taking less than 50 sq km.
The slow, centuries-long silting of the lake with earth, washed down by numerous tributaries from the slopes of the Krušné hory Mountains, gradually and naturally created a larger number of smaller water bodies from the single lake. The silted parts of the lake turned into extensive wetlands, which were overgrown with invasive plants, and so the continuous water surface kept shrinking. On the site of the former lake, after it had been dried up in the 19th century, a ‘lake meadow’ (in German called Die See-Wiese) was created and mainly used for farming. The Czech name of the old lake alluded to one of the fishing villages on its shores, Komořany.
A popular prehistoric resort
Rich archaeological finds show us that the Komořany Lake almost magically attracted our prehistoric ancestors. Neolithic cultures with linear pottery or stroke-ornamented ware, the Jordanów culture, the corded ware culture and the bell beaker culture, the Únětice (Aunjetitz) culture or the Knovíz culture, followed by the population of the Early Iron Age, the Celts and the Germans, successively opened a notional door and left evidence of their presence there. The Komořany Lake area and the entire Most Basin constitute an exceptional locality in the Czech lands, featuring a continuity of settlement from prehistoric times to the present day.
A settlement with a fortified core developed at the crossroads of trade routes, and received its name from the bridges and footbridges lining the lake shores
The lake that gave the name to the city of Most [= Bridge in the Czech meaning]
Chronicles note that as early as the 9th century, an important trade route from Saxony to Prague winded through the marshy parts of the lake, with branches to Teplice, Žatec, etc. At the intersection of these paths, on the south-eastern shore of the lake, a trade settlement with a fortified core developed, and received its name from to the bridges and footbridges lining the shores of the lake. In his chronicle, written in Latin, Cosmas of Prague recorded the name of the settlement in 1040: ‘Pons Gnevin iuxta fluvium Belinam’ ([Mr] Hněva’s Bridge over the river Bílina). But we also have testimony from an earlier time. From a person who can be described as a celebrity by today’s standards, Ibrahim Ibn Yaqub, an envoy of Caliph Al-Hakam II of Córdoba to Emperor Otto I, from 965-966. Ibn Yaqub describes the journey over the Krušné hory Mountains as follows: ‘The forest extends from its beginning to its end over more than 40 miles and is located in impassable mountains. There are wooden bridges, about two miles long, over swamps. At the end of the forest, one comes to the city of Prague.’
The definitive drying of the lake was ordered by Ferdinand Joseph of Lobkowicz in 1831, and this decision erased the once largest Czech lake from maps
Fishermen, farmers, and millers
Komořany came into existence as a fishing settlement, just like, for example, the much more important Ervěnice. However, due to the gradual natural shrinking of the lake and the spreading of meadows, fields, and pastures, the inhabitants had to refocus on another type of livelihood. Fishermen became farmers. Komořany itself, which gave the lake its name, remained in the shadow of nearby Most throughout history. The proximity to each other was the source of a curious dispute that actually led to the beginning of the draining and drying of the lake in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Millers in Most were interested in maintaining a certain level of the lake as water supply for their mills. However, the water level was a thorn in the Komořany farmers’ side, especially during periods of heavy rainfall, as the lake then overflowed its banks, flooding fields and destroying crops. The 1815 flood caused particularly heavy damage. The Komořany residents’ dissatisfaction resulted in the destruction of the dam that prevented water outflow from the lake. The incident had a follow-up at the ‘emperor’s and king’s court’ in Litoměřice. However, there were other reasons for the drainage: by the beginning of the 19th century, most of the original lake had already turned into a marshy and muddy terrain overgrown with reeds, in which primarily mosquitoes thrived. From the newspapers of the time and the Komořany chronicle, we then learn about the excessive incidence of diseases, such as cholera and typhoid. At the time, the owner of a significant part of the lake was Ferdinand Joseph Johan of Lobkowicz, who in 1831 ordered its final drying. And the once largest Czech lake disappeared from the map. The desiccation brought about the resolution of protracted disputes and a significant expansion of areas for farming. It is often mistakenly interpreted that coal mining was behind the drying up of the lake, but in this case it is a romanticised view of the northern Bohemian aristocrat’s prescience.
The coal story
The large-scale artificial drainage of the lake and the reclamation of the wetlands benefited primarily farming areas. The fact that there are brown coal deposits in northern Bohemia was already known in the early modern period, but the time was not yet ripe for large-scale industrial mining at the turn of the 18th century. Until early 19th century, coal was extracted there only locally by deep mining. Although the later development of extraction and transport equipment resulted in the opening of many modern deep mines, the landscape in the Most Basin maintained its agricultural nature with scattered artificial water bodies (ponds and depressions) and numerous deep shafts with typical mining towers until the 1940s.
Surface mining of brown coal at the turn of the 19th century in a period photograph. Picture from the collections of the Regional Museum and Gallery in Most.
The Petscheks
One of the key figures for the then almost non-existent Komořany Lake region at the end of the 19th and in the first four decades of the 20th century was the Jewish merchant Moses Petschek and his son Ignác. Moses Petschek correctly guessed that the future belonged to coal and in 1871 bought shares in the Most Coal Mining Company. The son then capitalised on his father’s investment many times over. If 2.5 million tonnes of coal were produced in the northern Bohemian brown coal basin in 1873, in 1900 it was almost 20 million tonnes per year. And the Petscheks controlled 75% of production. The clever businessman then also expanded into Germany, where he controlled a third of mining. In total, he extracted 60 million tonnes of coal annually. It is no exaggeration to say that the Komořany Lake area was a reservoir of energy for the Czechoslovak First Republic’s economic miracle to materialise.
The emergence of an industrial landscape
The total transformation of the erstwhile agricultural landscape around the former lake into an industrial landscape was only brought about by the Second World War. In 1939, the Nazis started building a refinery in Litvínov, which was intended to supply the front with petrol and diesel produced from northern Bohemian brown coal. Extensive brown coal surface mines were developed and, when they were opened, huge dumps of overburden tailings (banks and piles) were created. The post-war reconstruction and development then only continued what had been started. The construction of new coal-fired power stations was added, and several dozen municipalities had to make way for the expansion of surface mining capacities. The whole process culminated in the demolition of the old town of Most (1964 - 1983).
In 1926, the Ervěnice power station supplied the first energy to the capital city of Prague
Electricity for Prague
With the end of the First World War, the demand for electricity in the capital began rising and its existing power stations could no longer meet it. The solution chosen in 1923 was to build a coal-fired power station with an initial capacity of 45 MW near the Ervěnice village in the Most area. In February 1926, the power station supplied the first energy to the capital. The power station had three hundred-metre stacks, 16 boilers burning brown coal, and three turbine sets, to which a fourth with a capacity of 25 MW was added in 1932.
During the Second World War, a German group planned to build an energy and chemical complex in the Most area, which was intended to serve German industry. As part of the intended complex, the construction of the Ervěnice II power station began in 1941. The construction was completed in the post-war period between 1948 and 1952.
During the 1960s and 1970s, their operation no longer met the energy demand of the time, and in addition, both power stations, as well as the entire village of Ervěnice, gave way to surface mining in the ČSA surface mine. Fragments from this power station are still visible in the non-production part of the surface mine.
Ervěnice power station, 1940s
The Dřínov water reservoir, commonly called Dřínov Lake, was destined for a short life. It existed only for 26 years
Lake Intermezzo
In the 1950s, the need arose to build a large-capacity reservoir for high-quality industrial water for the Komořany and Ervěnice thermal power stations and the Záluží chemical plant. This is how the Dřínov water reservoir project (later commonly called Dřínov Lake) was born. Construction work began in 1953, and in 1955 the reservoir was filled through the constructed Podkrušnohorský feeder, into which the river Bílina was diverted and its insufficient water capacity was reinforced with water from the upper reaches of the river Ohře. The Fates, however, predestined the painstakingly and expensively built Lake Dřínov to a short life: its existence was limited to only 26 years. As early as 1970 and 1971, preparations for the final elimination of the lake began: due to the expansion of mining in the ČSA surface mine, the water feeder was moved from the south-western corner of the reservoir to its north-western corner, and the damming of the south-western part of the reservoir near a former tributary began. In 1980, the water was discharged and soon thereafter, the overburden stripping and mining machines bit into its bottom and dam. This sealed the lake’s fate.
The development of the Komořany Lake area over the centuries
Lake Komořany - Phoenix from the ashes
The epic history of the place will soon begin to write its new chapter. Thanks to the end of mining in the ČSA surface mine, water will fill the pit again. This time, however, it will not be a shallow lake. The depth of the future lake will exceed 100 meters. Its acreage will be close to that of Komořany. In its reincarnation in the form of New Komořany, the erstwhile fishing settlement of Komořany will present itself as a place to live and work for the 21st century, built on zero-emission hydrogen energy and mobility. Welcome to the future!
Visualisation of the future view of revived Komořany Lake over the Jezeří Castle.