An excursion to Mlynský náhon showed how the joint efforts of experts and volunteers are bringing life back to the city’s waterways.
On November 19, 2025, we took part in a guided tour of the area around the Mlynský náhon (Mill Race) in the Sever district of Košice. The tour was attended by four academic staff members from the Faculty of Science at Pavol Jozef Šafárik University, three students from the university, and a representative of the partner civic association Mlynský náhon, Ing. Eugen Ščavnický. He told us about the history of this place and the watercourse, the peculiarities of nature and technology, and the efforts of the Mlynský náhon civic association to better utilize the potential of the Mill Race for biodiversity, recreational use, and mitigation of the local impacts of climate change.
For several years now, a group of enthusiasts has been persistently and expertly uncovering the story of the Mill Race and bringing it to the public’s attention. The excursion along the banks of the Mill Race led from the place where this former tributary of the Hornád River, later modified several times to its current technical form, reflects the water from the main channel of this river to the roundabout at the Jumbo Center (1.7 km), where the surface stream disappears into a pipe. The Mill Race begins at the confluence of the Čermeľský potok and Hornád rivers and the recreational Ryba lake. The Mlynský náhon civic association took the initiative to take care of the Mill Race, stabilizing the water level with small structures in the channel and obtaining a change in the operating regime. In recent years, the Mill Race has not been drained before winter, the vegetation on the banks has been more carefully maintained, and, with the consent of the City Greenery Administration, small islands with wetland vegetation have been created.
In addition to the aesthetic benefits, opportunities have been created for better biological water purification, habitats for greater biodiversity, and shelters and spawning grounds for fish. Small innovations in the Mill Race are a harbinger of the planned extensive revitalization of the riverbed itself, as well as the adjacent areas, according to the winning project of the architectural and urban study for the city of Košice. The excursion was not only informative. It was also a working meeting of the creative team involved in the EFFUSE-win “in situ” educational project. During the discussion, we discussed the intention to prepare information panels about Mill Race, document the development of nature in Mill Race, implement a program for the public on the banks of Mill Race next year, and join forces with both partners to monitor and ensure the satisfactory condition of the environment at this location.
The water of the Mill Race no longer powers mill wheels and turbines of small power plants, but it is a valuable landscape feature in the city. In recent years, the Mill Race has been revived by increasingly diverse nature (e.g., increasingly diverse ichthyofauna and avifauna, surprising finds of fungi and large bivalves, the development of a pollinator community, etc.). It is good that a group of positively motivated people and experts are watching over all this.
