The walled tower of the water-house as we know it today was built between 1582 and 1596. It supplied with water Prague’s Lesser Town. That is where its name came from. The tower bore another additional name Petržílkovská. This name was adopted from the times, when an old wooden water-tower and a mill used to stand here. Both buildings were taken care of by Jan Pertžílka , the baker from New Town, and by his helpers. The water-tower of Lesser Town in Smíchov (standing beside Jiráskův Bridge) had been functioning for the longest time period in comparison with other historical water-towers in Prague. Its operation was finally stopped on 20th September 1886.
The tower of the former water-house is 34m tall. It has rectangular ground plan of 8.6m x 9.6m and is accessible from the administrative building No. 90/4 on Nábřežní Street. The building and the tower are currently being used by the VRV Praha – water utilization and construction company, who has recently carried out reconstructions of both properties. From the second floor of the administrative building we can cross a little glassed-in foot bridge, which takes us to the tower. The foot bridge over a floating channel was built in 1990 and designed by Ing. Arch. J. Petřková.
The tower of 7 storeys has a pyramidal roof covered with hollow tiles. The roof has several skylight windows. After entering the tower we first step down the solid newel stairs made of wood, which runs through the whole building. We get to the basement with a boardroom. In here we can see a flood mark on the wall, which reminds us of how incredibly high the last flood water rose in August 2002. Then we can step up the stairs, which have a strong rope on the side as a handle. We could also use an elevator for one person only. Individual rooms are accessible directly from the stairs. The Joist ceilings are modern and of the original placement. The two highest floors were modernized and they are being used as offices. Both the administrative building and the tower are not open to the public.
