Prvi javni vodovod u Osijeku
The first public water supply system in Osijek

Summary/Abstract: At the beginning of the 18th century the military forces stationed in Tvrða in Osijek were supplied with drinking water from wells. Since the wells were too shallow, it often happened that the soldiers ran out of water for cooking and bread-making, especially in the summer months. Since mid-18th century the military authorities in Tvrða thus focused on the construction of a water supply system and Osijek became the first of all the towns in the Kingdom of Croatia and Slavonia to get a public- character water supply system and sewerage system, for which it could thank the numerous officer staff that had arrived to Tvrða and that was accustomed to a higher standard of living and hygiene, as well as the wells that often ran out of water, especially during the summer months, in spite of the vicinity of the river Drava. The military authorities opened the first public water supply system in Tvrða in 1751, having installed two pumps along the bank of the river Drava at the corner of the Eugenius’ Bastion in 1751. Water pipes were laid along the external side of the bastion and they stretched out to the main square in Tvrða, where two public wells for watering horses were built. In the middle of the well they set a stone column with two vertical water pipes running through it and with an installed hand pump system. The system supplied individual barracks with water in such a way that the pressure pipes laid in the streets of Tvrða, leading to the pump station at the bank of the Drava, were connected with the suction pipes in the Drava, which pushed water through pressure pipes to individual military buildings. At first the water supply system served only military purposes, i.e. the needs of the army stationed in the military buildings (barracks) in Tvrða, but by the end of the 18th century several civilians households were hooked up to the military water supply system in Tvrða.

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