In the Ašský výběžek and in the adjacent areas of Bavaria and Saxony, underground works built to collect groundwater have been preserved. These water collection galleries were dug in the zone of near-surface weathering of rocks. Thanks to its permeability, this zone is a good collector for shallow groundwater circulation.The galleries are built on a similar principle to the so-called qanats, underground gravity-fed water feeders up to several tens of kilometers long from mountain slopes to arid areas. The oldest qanats are documented from the period several thousand years ago in Persia. They subsequently spread elsewhere around the world.You are in front of the entrance to one of the water collection galleries, which was probably dug by hand in the 18th century in weathered fine-grained biotitic-chloritic-muscovite schists (metadrobes). The underground passage has a total length of 185 meters, its height is between 180 and 190 cm, and its width is between 60 and 70 cm. On the walls, there are clearly visible traces of the tools used to carve the tunnel, and niches for placing candles to illuminate the tunnel during its construction. The actual spring was probably in the side passage, which is now filled in. The place where the tunnel originally ended is also unclear. In later times, it was converted into a cellar for storing agricultural products ("vegetable cellar") with a new entrance right next to the road.
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