The spa center of Karlovy Vary, squeezed into the narrow valley of the Teplá River, was narrowed by catastrophic floods in the past. High water came after intense rains or after sudden thaws of snow cover in the upper reaches of the Teplá River. The force of the flood wave was usually multiplied by the rupture of a dam in one of the ponds around the Teplá Monastery.The devastating floods in 1821 and especially in 1890 led to the decision to build a dam at Březová, approximately 6.5 km upstream of the Teplá River. The Březová Dam was completed in 1936. Its dam is the first concrete dam in the Czech Republic. It is 229 m long and 38.6 m high. The bedrock of the dam is injected with two rows of boreholes with a total length of 1,600 m.The crown of the dam is 8.4 m wide and the Karlovy Vary-Bečov-Plzeň road runs along it. There are two inspection passages in the dam.
The reservoir can hold more than 5.5 million cubic meters of water with a flooded area of over 77 hectares. During normal filling, approximately one quarter of the designed capacity is used. In addition to its flood control function, the Březová reservoir serves to regulate the water flow through Karlovy Vary, to generate electricity, and for sports and recreation.
Photo 1: Březová Dam
Photo 2: Březová Dam
Photo 3: Flood in Karlovy Vary on September 9, 1821 (Leopold Platzer, orig. Karlovy Vary Museum).