The Troja Basin is one of the most valuable natural areas of Prague. It is part of the Drahaň-Troja Nature Park and the last unregulated section of the Vltava River. All this creates unique conditions for rich biodiversity, which is found nowhere else in Prague. The steep slopes of the right bank have for centuries provided a suitable climate for vineyards and orchards, of which Troja Castle is still a part. Thanks to the adjacent zoological and botanical gardens, the surroundings of Troja Castle are also, albeit involuntarily, home to many exotic animals and plants. Significant urban development is planned in the area: housing for up to several tens of thousands of people is being built in the surrounding districts, and the Wild Vltava project will be implemented in the Troja basin in the coming years under the auspices of the Prague City Planning and Development Institute. The proposal envisages the widening of the main river bed and the creation of gravel islands that will change over time. These places will be left to nature and its natural development and will return the river to approximately the 19th century, a time when it was not controlled in any way .
The early Baroque chateau in Troja itself dates back to 1679 and was designed by the French painter and architect Jan Baptiste Mathey. The castle was built by Václav Vojtěch of Šternberk, who was inspired by the suburban villas around Rome. The garden was founded in 1685 and in 1697 outbuildings and a terrace were added. By the middle of the 19th century it had changed hands, and in 1842 it was bought by Austrian Field Marshal Adolf Windischgrätz. In 1922, the castle and the adjacent land were donated to the town by the Troja landowner Alois Svoboda . Currently, the building is managed and used by the Prague City Gallery, which holds regular exhibitions here.
Already before the start of the covid pandemic, we became informal consultants of the Biotroja programme, which was established in 2020 under the auspices of the Prague City Gallery in the complex of the Baroque Troja Castle with a large garden in the immediate vicinity of the Vltava River and the botanical and zoological gardens. In a captivating location dominated by the rich cultural and natural heritage of the Troja Basin, one of the last remaining unregulated stretches of the Wild Vltava River in Prague boasting a unique biodiversity influenced by the exotic inhabitants of the adjacent gardens, the Prague City Gallery has created an innovative platform for collaboration with the public as well as with various organisations and individuals as a further incentive to actively consider the environment, nature and climate.
The Biotroja programme, founded by curator and cultural consultant Zuzana Pištěková and visual artist Miloš Vojtěchovský, is subtitled Centre for Composting Culture. It is inspired by fermentation processes. Fermentation and composting are not only physical and chemical processes, but also social, cultural qualities. Fermentation is an important part of the processes in nature and, metaphorically speaking, in society. Organic substances are gradually transformed into other elements by the action of microbial enzymes, fungi and lichens, and thus become the basis for the emergence of new forms of life.
Similarly, our joint thoughts to create an experimental space in the castle grounds exploring the intersections between art, ecology, research and the urban environment fermented. In what used to be outbuildings, offices and a laundry, connected to the main building of Troja Castle by an underground tunnel, we offered the gallery a cultural program focused on ecology, environment and education, with the aim of fostering new forms of collaboration with organisations and individuals, specifically artists and natural science professionals. The space would consist of a café, exhibition spaces and a research lab that together explore sustainable design, circular economy or so-called nature-based solutions. They use local biodiversity as a starting point and share their practice with the public through a series of activities.
Troja Castle and the adjacent area is an important cultural landmark of the whole region and, along with the botanical and zoological gardens, it gives the impression that its natural task should be the cultivation of man. This is how we approach the new space in the outbuildings: headed by the Haenke Experimental Laboratory and the Café, many important topics are to be introduced, especially concerning the relationship between human health and plants. Small vertical farms are to be built in the space in order to investigate, among other things, how artificial intelligence can influence the yield of essential oils contained in herbs grown in refrigerators. Fallen fruit from adjacent orchards could be analysed to reduce waste and as a potential binder and material for application in product design. Collecting plants from the surrounding area would be interesting in terms of researching their potential outside of traditional medicine and possible future use as a material or in healthcare. We would like to compost unused plant material from the lab as well as waste from the café and continue to find uses for them. We would like to use the coffee grounds that are produced as waste from the café as a medium for growing oyster mushrooms, which can again be processed in the café. Furthermore, it is possible to analyse the local algae from the Vltava River and look into the question of their use as future materials. We planned to share all of these processes and partial outputs with the public through educational and awareness campaigns on social media as well as through the exchange of practice, physically on site.
The aim of the project is to create a space for experimental research on local biodiversity, which will be co-created with the public, to create a unique and pleasant experience for visitors to the Troja Basin, the castle and the adjacent institutions, led by the Prague City Gallery. We would like to bring a set of completely new topics and ideas, some of which have never been explored before, into the discourse related to sustainability in Czech media and society, to arouse public interest in plants and their unique potential for our society through co-creation of the space, that will help everyone reconnect with nature, revive a sense of community in neighbourhoods where such activities are non-existent and lacking, and finally create economic opportunities, from generating income for the café and increasing the number of visitors to the area, to innovations led by products and services based on local biodiversity research.
