Old Water Tower

The Old Water Tower (Vodárenská věž) in Tábor is a Renaissance-era structure built straight into the town's medieval walls, and it exists because the city's founders picked a hilltop for defense and forgot about the water supply. You'll find it on Žižkova street, barely 150 metres from the main square, which makes it an easy add-on to any walk through the old town.

Why does a hilltop town need a water tower?

Tábor's founders chose a defensible hill, which meant no natural water source nearby. The fix came in 1492, when the town built an artificial dam reservoir known by the biblical name Jordán — still recognized as the oldest valley dam reservoir in Central Europe. A few years later, around 1502, engineers added a pumping mechanism that lifted water from Jordán up to the top of the town's fortifications, a rise of 32 metres above the reservoir's surface. From there, wooden pipes carried it into the town's wells and fountains. The tower marks the exact spot where that system reached the walls, built into the eastern stretch of the fortifications rather than standing apart from them.

What's actually inside?

The tower itself is a compact, three-storey, rectangular building under a gabled roof, but its façades do the talking: the north and south sides end in scrolled Renaissance gables, and sgraffito decoration covers much of the exterior — a technique you'll spot on plenty of buildings across the historic centre. A fire damaged the tower in 1559, but it was rebuilt and has stood in that restored form ever since, now protected as a cultural monument within Tábor's urban heritage reserve.

Since 1997 the interior has housed the Vodárenská věž Gallery, run by the city and dedicated to young and emerging artists working outside conventional formats. That combination — Renaissance stonework wrapped around contemporary art — is part of what makes a visit worth the short detour.

How do you get there, and what else is nearby?

Because the tower sits inside Tábor's compact historic core, reaching it from Žižkovo náměstí (the main square) takes only a few minutes on foot through the old town's narrow lanes. It pairs naturally with the rest of a walking route through Tábor: the town hall, the parish church, and the network of medieval underground passages beneath the streets are all within easy reach.

When's the best time to visit?

Spring and summer give you the gallery's full opening hours and long evenings by the Jordán reservoir itself — the very lake the tower was built to draw from. Outside peak season the old town is quieter and easier to wander without crowds, but it's worth checking the gallery's current hours in advance, since they can shrink off-season.

Frequently asked questions

Is the Old Water Tower only interesting to architecture fans? Not really — it's a working contemporary art gallery today, so it draws exhibition-goers just as often as people chasing local history.

Where did the water pumped into the tower actually come from? From the Jordán reservoir, an artificial dam lake built in 1492 right below the town — the oldest valley dam reservoir in Central Europe.

How much time should I set aside? Fifteen to twenty minutes covers the interior comfortably. Treat it as a stop on a longer walk through the old town, not a destination in itself.

Is it close to other Tábor landmarks? Yes — it's about 150 metres from the main square, so it fits naturally into any stroll through the historic centre.