It might seem like an absurd idea to build an underground city for the sake of beer. But dont tell that to anyone in Pilsen, a city in western Bohemia in the Czech Republic. About an hours drive south-west of Prague, the capital, Pilsen is a beer city, and home to one of the first lagers ever produced, the Pilsner beer. Easily one of the most popular beers in the world today, the Pilsner is sold here as Pilsner Urquell. Urquell is a German word that means original source or fountainhead, as the brand is said to use the same recipe that was used to brew the original Pilsner in 1842.
Founded in 1295 by King Wenceslas II, the first records of a brewery in Pilsen are also from roughly around the same time. So its not surprising that its most popular tourist attraction, the historical undergrounda 19km, three-storey labyrinth of tunnels running beneath most of the old cityowes its existence to beer as well. An intricate system of wells, hallways, corridors and cellars, the underground was built between the 13th and 19th centuries with the primary purpose of storing beer.
The underground has three levels, the first running right beneath the buildings and in use even today as individual basements and cellars. The second is a maze of brick-lined and concrete arched passageways periodically opening into open areas historically used for storing beer barrels, food and even ammunition. The third level, more sparse and consisting mainly of just connecting corridors, is now closed for all purposes due to most parts of it being flooded. The three levels are well connected through multiple staircases, now barricaded by grills. Also alongside is a network of 360 wells, many of them later used as waste pits.
Although most of the underground has been modified and bolstered during the centuries, first with brick and later with girders and concrete, you can still glimpse a little of the truly old with cobbled pathways and cave-like holed tunnels running out from the main route open to the public. All along the tour route are well showcased artefacts from the region, such as tools used to build the underground and their different modifications over time, cookware, pipes, even a giant 200kg catapult stone used during medieval times in an attempt to break into the city walls.
Another interesting aspect is the undergrounds own character as a hidden city of sorts with rustic taverns. These are rudimentary slabs of sandstone laid out as benches and there is even a serving window. The story believed to be behind these underground taverns is a medieval law that prohibited drinking during the daylight hoursthe residents found a clever way around the rule in the lack of daylight in the underground Apart from being a drinking hole, the passageways were also used as secret communication channels and even as shelters for the populace during the multiple invasions during medieval times by the Hussites and later during the Napoleonic wars. There is even an archaic printing press down below that was used to print the first Czech book, Mysteries of the Trojan Chronicle, in the late 15th century.
The old city was made to replicate a chessboard with the towering St Bartholomew Church in the centre of the town square. You can decide for yourself if there is any resemblance to one if you climb all the way up the 102m-high church tower. Regardless of what you decide, what you are guaranteed are grand views of the now sprawling urban landscape. To the west you can spot the Great Synagogue with its red dome-topped pillars rising high above the city. The third largest in the world, it was built in 1892 by the Jews then living in Pilsen.
The city is today the fourth largest in the Czech Republic and a major industrial centre but there is still enough here for a history junkie or a beer connoisseur or even a casual traveller who cant help but be drawn to its quirky small-town feel and old-world charm with the Baroque architecture and its various parks and gardens. And, of course, the beer. In the end its all about the beerand lets raise a tankard to that.