In 1923, Czechoslovakia began to build the first ever high-pressure system in the Slovak territory in Dolný Jelenec - Staré Hory. The waterwork on the Staré hory brook consists of two parts. The upper part comprises the Motyčky reservoir and the power plant in Dolný Jelenec, the lower part comprises the storage reservoir in Dolný Jelenec and the power plant in Staré Hory. The originally planned third part near Uľanka was never completed.
The commission was implemented by the Lanna company – one of the leading waterworks builders at the time. The chief engineer František Smrček invited the architect Jindřich Merganc, his Czech colleague from the construction department of the Ministry of Public Works in Bratislava, to join the project. The architecture of the power plant has folklore elements but incorporates them into the overall character of the building in the spirit of the contemporary national style. There are two Francis turbines with a total installed capacity of 1 MW. The power plant building has a hip and saddle roof with a wooden gable, on which the architect used geometric ornaments inspired by folk architecture. The hall of the engine room is illuminated by grouped windows with simple 'industrial' articulation and above them are semi-circular windows above the cornice. The building rests on a massive plinth and has a continuous cordon cornice. The plinth and corners are divided by an imitation stone bond.
Construction of the power line to Banská Bystrica was also a part of the project. For the first time in the Slovak territory, the so-called Ambursen type plate face dam was used on the Motyčky storage reservoir. It consists of a regular grid of supporting columns filled with walls. From the Motyčky storage reservoir, water is piped to the Dolný Jelenec power station, which is built on the upper edge of the Dolný Jelenec reservoir.
author of the description: Katarína Haberlandová
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