Sladovna Písek o.p.s

History of Sladovna

The foundation stone of Sladovna (the malt house) was laid by the Brewing Right Commons Association of the City of Písek on the 5th of July 1862. The construction of the building was completed two years later – in 1864. In 1880s, the following generation of brewers added the office house. Since then, the malt house has not been altered. It served its purpose, i.e. malt production, for one hundred years with short breaks. The Písek Brewery used the malt house until 1953, then the malt house supplied malt to the Protivín Brewery and later to Jihočeské pivovary, a state enterprise. The operation of the malt house ended in 1973 and the building was then used as a warehouse.

In 1995, the City of Písek took over the malt house from the South Bohemian Breweries and put its reconstruction through. The repaired building, the reconstruction of which started in 2000, was to be used as an archive. In 2005, the City of Písek received a contribution from the European Structural Funds for the project “Regeneration of the Historical Core of the City of Písek at the Otava River Banks between the Stone Bridge and the Putim Gate”. The reconstructed part of the building passed the approval in 2007 and the courtyard in 2008.

In 2006, the City of Písek established the public service organisation Sladovna Písek with the aim to create a cultural space focusing mainly on children. In June 2009, two permanent multimedia exhibits opened in Sladovna: “Radek Pilař” (presenting the native of Písek) and “In the Footprints of Illustration”, which is dedicated to the history of children’s book illustrations.