věž Obřího pramene

The water-tower at Obří pramen stands in the village of Lahošť, Ústecký kraj, on the right bank of the Bouřlivec stream. Built in the 18th century by the Valdštejn family, it once fed the spa at Duchcov with water from the warm spring. The tower is a protected technical monument and shows how 18th-century engineers supplied Teplice’s baths. The spring once poured out 27–42 litres a second at 25–38 °C, strong enough to drive a mill. After a mine collapse in 1879 the flow vanished and the tower fell idle. Yet in 1882 a bronze hoard of some 2 000 Celtic pieces was dug from the spring’s rocks, later scattered across museums from Prague to London. The find proves the spring’s ritual importance long before the tower was built. Visitors see a fifteen-metre stone tower with a tiled hipped roof and barred windows. The ground floor and cellar still show their original doorways and a pigeon-loft niche. Outside, the enclosed plot rises to the level of the first floor, where a water ram once stood. A short walk north-west brings you to the vanished mill, now a private house, marking the vanished power of the Obří pramen.