Municipal well

Passengers using public bus transport on their way to Prague will surely notice the stop announcement on the sign "U studánky". Today it is just the name of a bus station on the border of Vestec and Prague. We would hardly find the mentioned well in the fields or commercial zone anymore.

"At the well" was also called another place in Vestec and many will probably be surprised that we pass it almost daily without realizing it. The municipal well on Vestec Street is just a few steps from the stone bell tower. Almost as a contrast, it looks like cars are whizzing past it from one side and the bleating of Mr Josef Skřivan's sheep can be heard from the other. From time immemorial it was just a small well, protected by stones. But it meant a lot to the locals. It was an undrained spring that served many times in difficult times of drought, when no life-giving liquid had long been reflected on the wells of history. It was a source of soft water for the laundresses and housewives of the estates, who would come with their carts and large containers to fetch it. In the early 1970s, when Mrs Mentlíková was in office at the municipal authority, the well, which is about 7 to 8 metres deep, was reinforced with rubble.

Even today it is not at all unused. It has its daily customer, it offers refreshment to random cyclists. And when the recently planted trees needed frequent watering to survive the long period without rain, it helped them too.

Even ordinary, everyday things have their charm, you just have to look around.

Missing photo

Blanka Pašková, chronicler