About Prisecnice Dam

Přísečnice Reservoir in the Ore Mountains of northwestern Bohemia was completed in 1976 on the Přísečnice stream, a small tributary of the Ohře. The rockfill dam stands 61 metres tall and holds 50 million cubic metres, serving primarily as a drinking water supply for the industrial towns of the Chomutov district. The construction was extraordinarily controversial: the entire town of Přísečnice, including its historic church and cemetery, was demolished and flooded to make way for the reservoir. The 460-year-old town was one of the largest communities ever deliberately submerged in Czech history, and the forced resettlement of its population remains a sensitive subject. During severe droughts or exceptional drawdowns, the ruins of the church tower and building foundations re-emerge above the waterline, drawing visitors who come to see the ghostly remains of the lost town. The reservoir sits in a landscape shaped by centuries of silver mining and later open-cast coal extraction.