Plzeň will connect with the brewery after 150 years with a new footbridge over the Radbuz

Plzeň - The center of Plzeň will connect with the brewery next month with a new footbridge over the Radbuz River after nearly 150 years. An attractive access to the Pilsner Urquell brewery complex will open to tourists and residents simultaneously with a relaxation center and an extensive sports and recreational zone in Štruncovy Sady, which the city hall is completing with funding from the EU. Jindřiška Eliášková, the tourism manager of Prazdroj, told ČTK this.
     "We greatly welcome this, as it coincides beautifully before October 5th (for the celebrations of the 170th anniversary of the brewing of the first batch of Pilsner Urquell). It will symbolize the renewed connection between the city and the brewery," she added.
     A wooden footbridge between the village and the meadow where the brewery was built was created approximately at the same location in the 1840s. In the 1870s, it was washed away and nothing has been there since. Prazdroj contributed to the project and is involved in the part of the footbridge that leads through the complex and guides people from the garage roofs to the courtyard in front of the visitor center, where the corridor ends. The footbridge, costing around ten million crowns, will be closed like the brewery courtyard from midnight, reopening at 05:00.
     "I very much welcome it. We all know that the long-term traffic situation in front of the brewery is not good and is not easily solvable. It's a scar of the past political period," the manager stated. The footbridge, also intended for cyclists, according to her, "partly replaces" the possibility for people to safely get from the brewery to the city and vice versa. It will serve tourists but also Plzeň residents for walks. They will be able to safely pass through areas they previously hesitated to enter because they didn't want to dash across main roads, she added. People will walk from the brewery between the Sokolovna (gym) and the stadium to an underpass under the highway, known as the "mouse hole," and through the adjusted Mlýnská Strouha will reach the center.
     The relaxation center will begin operating at the end of September. It will cost 115 million crowns, of which 72 million CZK will be provided by the EU and the rest will come from the city budget. Sand paths, asphalt roads, lighting, and water access points are already completed. An 18-meter high climbing wall and a skate park are being built. In a currently neglected area at the confluence of the Radbuz and Mže rivers, a new park will feature a small square with a fountain and an outdoor gallery. An unsightly massive concrete fence lining the stadium will be replaced with new transparent fencing.
     More than a quarter of a million tourists passed through all the tourist routes of Prazdroj last year, an 11 percent increase year-on-year. "In the first seven months of this year, we are again seeing a growth of seven percent. It has become a significant tourist industry that we operate," Eliášková added.