Traces of the history of the city are erased by reckless construction works and the construction of new aboveground structures. History also disappears due to the implementation of buildings necessary for the functioning of the city and ensuring the comfort of its inhabitants. These constructions include the underground utilities collectors. The structures that conceal the utilities and the distribution of various sources, including drinking water and sewage, are built under the streets, squares, and parks of the historic city centre. It is therefore understandable that from time to time a historical underground space is encountered at the same depth as the collector lines.
One of the many examples of accidental discoveries was recorded in 2006, when the collector network was completed under náměstí Svobody (Freedom Square). A complex of Baroque cellars was found directly below building no. 10, known as U Čtyř mamlasů (At the Four Giants). Partially buried cellars with access staircases were in very good structural condition and could have been saved if they had been discovered earlier. However, as the collector line could no longer be changed, the cellars were simply documented and then destroyed.
When connecting the utility collector system to buildings in Radnická Street, the presence of historical cellars greatly complicated the situation. The cellars are now used as part of the collector system. New engineering networks pass through medieval walls, under vaults where wine was once aged and merchants stored their goods before Brno’s annual markets. There is a symbolic connection between the historical underground and the modern structures that are likely to become part of history in their turn, leaving behind indelible evidence of life in Brno in the twenty-first century.