Urbex In The Czech Republic - How To Find Industrial Abandoned Objects?
We really like to visit The Czech Republic. It’s one of our favorite countries. Unfortunately, the urbex part is still being undiscovered by us (yet ☺️). We saw a lot of abandoned buildings in the center of Prague, but all of them were totally locked, and we couldn’t get inside. We did our research, and we learned that nearby we can find stunning lime kilns. We didn’t hesitate. We just checked the public transport out of Prague and one hour later we were in the industrial town. We got to Industrial Ways (industriální Cesty), and there we found the amazing abandoned object.
Abandoned Factory Zeolit - The Great Part Of The Industrial Architecture
We weren’t aware of what we were visiting. As we found the location, and arrived there really quickly, we had no time to read about this place before the trip. So we were really surprised to see this great part of the industrial architecture. We found a factory building full of bricks in various shapes. There was also the building that seemed to be a warehouse, and of course three massive lime kilns. The view was stunning, and we strongly recommend it to all fans of the industrial urbex. We assumed that the factory might have been built in the 19th century.
The History Of The Abandoned Factory - What Happened In The Zeolit Building
When we returned home, we really wanted to know the history of this stunning object. On the walls we saw the logotype of the factory, so we could easily check what exactly we visited. We learned that the building was a part of the ironworks called Vojtěšská huť. The factory was founded in the middle of the 19th century by Vojtěch Lanna the Elder. The establishment of the smelter is mainly connected with the extraction of coking coal in the Kladno region. Actually, this industry made Kladno teeming with life.
The City Of Kladno - How The Coal Industry Developed This Place?
In the first half of the 19th century, word spread the news that there are huge coal deposits underground in the Kladno neighbourhood. Something like “gold rush” broke out there. People came from the surrounding area, bought small plots of land and hoped that they would be able to get rich by finding a coal seam. The problem was that most diggers digging on their own in their spare time could only get 20, in some cases even 30 meters deep. But the coal seams usually started a few meters deeper. Can you imagine this wasted potential?
Coal Mine In Kladno - How It Was Started?
A lot of people wasted their potential, but not Jan Váňa. He was sent to look for coal by the capitalist Václav Novotný and thus had a certain amount of capital at his disposal, which gave him an advantage over the others. In the pub he met František Jirátko, a gardener and mason from Bustěhrad. When Jirátko was already about twenty meters deep, Váňa told Jirátko that he no longer had a chance to find coal, and bought the land from him in 1846. A few meters deeper, he found the first coal seam, and the first Kateřina Josefa mine was soon opened on the spot.
The Industry Development in Kladno - Zeolit Factory
When the coal mine was teeming with life, the factories from the similar industries began to develop around it. One of them was Zeoit Kladno that we visited. We found there a lot of bricks and ceramic products which were created when the factory was working. Unfortunately, except for the huge lime kilns, we didn’t find any industrial equipment. Probably all of them were stolen. Anyway, we consider it as a great part of the industrial architecture and great location for the urbex in Europe. We took a lot of amazing urbex photos, and as usual, we hope you’ll enjoy them.
