Kyselka, West Bohemia, July 12 (CTK) – The museum of bottling mineral waters and the local Mattoni mineral water was opened in the restored Loeschner Pavilion in the Kyselka former spa town by the Karlovy Vary Mineral Waters (KMV) firm on Tuesday.
Rudolf Heinrich Mattoni, an American living in Argentina and a great grand-son of the firm’s founder, attended the ceremony.
The new museum, which the public can visit as of July 16, offers an exhibition on the history of mineral water bottling and mainly on Heinrich Mattoni (1830-1910), who made the local mineral water famous.
The museum has gained many exhibits from locals, KVM’s lawyer Martin Hanzl, who was in charge of the new display, told CTK.
Naturally, the company also owns a number of valuable items and its general director Alessandro Pasquale, who is interested in the history of the firm, has bought a lot of things, too, Hanzl said.
Pasquale said on Tuesday the idea of the reconstruction and use of the Loeschner Pavilion for a museum had emerged a long time ago.
The reconstruction started in 2013 and it was completed in 2015. Its costs amounted to 20 million crowns, while the display cost another five million.
The Loeschner Pavilion, called after doctor and a friend of Heinrich Mattoni, was built in 1907 in the style of Swiss mountain architecture. It was originally used as a plant for battling the Mattoni mineral water. However, after its operation was shut down, the building became dilapidated.
Now it houses an exhibition on two floors. It might be expanded into a roofed corridor in the future where the original bottling line should be reconstructed.
Apart from the museum, a new book on the history of the Mattoni family, written by Stanislav Burachovic and Jitka Kulhankova, was presented on Tuesday. It will be sold exclusively in the museum.
