Masaryk Embankment (Masarykovo nábřeží) lies on the right bank of the Vltava and covers the section from Jirásek Square via Žofín and the National Theatre all the way to Legion Bridge.
As recently as the 19th century, the embankment here was unregulated. It mainly belonged to millers and tanners who processed leather. The names of the mills that stood here have been preserved (e.g. Šerlinský, Hačkovský, Hamilkovský, Zadák, Lodecké mlýny, Vávrův). Probably the best known is Šítkovský, which has left behind the Šítkov Water Tower, the name of the Šítkov Weir and the nearby Šítkova Street.
The 47 m water tower supplied water to the New Town water network and to the reservoirs at Karlov until 1913, when its operation ended. In 1926 the Mánes association bought the tower together with the adjacent mills, and the mills were demolished. Part of the embankment along Žofín was completed in 1903 and, together with today's Smetana Embankment, bore the name Francis Embankment. The Austrian Emperor Francis I is still commemorated by the monument on Smetana Embankment, in whose niche an equestrian statue of him used to stand.
From 1912 this section was called Rieger Embankment. Between 1945 and 1946 it was still Rieger Embankment, but from 1946 it was renamed Gottwald Embankment. In 1952 the section around the National Theatre was added — it had been called Tyl Square between 1886 and 1952 and Upper Embankment Street during World War II. In 1990, Gottwald Embankment was renamed Masaryk.
On one of our longer cruises along Masaryk Embankment you can admire a number of Prague landmarks, such as the National Theatre, Žofín or the Mánes Association of Fine Artists building.
