Original intent and purpose
The factory building was built to increase the production capacity of the bottling plant in 1898. New capacities for washing mugs and bottles and two new workplaces for the production of Bílín digestive lozenges were needed. Prince Mořic Lobkovic, together with the court builder architect Sáblík, designed the factory building in the form of a castle, which with its showiness justifies the fact that the building covers the view of the front of the spa area. An interesting fact is that the very first sketch has been preserved, on which Mořic Lobkovic and Sáblík agreed on the concept of the building.
A corner of the inner courtyard of the factory building with the Reuss monument.
Architectural solution of the building
The factory building respects the symmetry of the construction of the spa park and is connected to the much older railway loading building of the Prague-Duchcovská railway by a "connecting node". The ingenious solution makes it possible to maintain an almost parallel front side of both the factory and the bottling plant with a difference of less than three angular degrees.
The factory was designed to be inaccessible to the public, only the middle passage part was internally separated from the rest of the building, and its hall with a staircase and a glass ceiling serves as a new entrance to the spa environment.
The factory building creates a romantic corner of the inner courtyard in front of the original facade of the Bílina spa with the Reuss monument. At the same time, it effectively separates the spa environment from the railway.
Sample from the construction documentation of the leveling solution for the Bílinská kyselka factory building
Usage over time
The building was used for production purposes until the beginning of the Second World War, when it was confiscated by the Wehrmacht as the property of the Czech Lobkovic nobility. After the war, the building was partially rebuilt into an administrative center. For the newly established socialist Czechoslovakia, the building became the headquarters of the Northwest Springs, including healing springs Bílinské kyselky, Jaječické bitter waters, the Poděbrady spa, the Praga spring in Břvany, the Vratislavice and Běloveská Ida springs.
Current status and destination
At present, the building is modified to look like a castle by installing new wooden windows instead of the original factory ones. The original windows are also in the exposition of the Museum of Mineralogy and Geology Bílinské kyselky. At present, the building is modified to look like a castle by installing new wooden windows instead of the original factory ones. The original windows are also in the exposition of the Museum of Mineralogy and Geology Bílinské kyselky. Now the building serves social purposes and its interiors include a museum exhibition, a corporate store, conference rooms and a modern classroom.
