Prazdroj Introduced a New Guide for Handicapped Visitors

Seven wheelchair–bound visitors were present at the launch of the new book in the Plzeňský Prazdroj Visitors Centre. They also tried the visitors’ tour to test its barrier-free character. Pilsen Major Martin Baxa, Petr Baláš of the Albatros publishing house, and Vesselin Barliev of Plzeňský Prazdroj spoke at the event. The director of the 700 Years of Town of Pilsen Foundation wished the author and his book many happy readers.

The Plzeňský Prazdroj brewery tour is accessible to all handicapped visitors. Guides are trained and equipped to ensure a pleasant experience to visitors with hearing, sight, physical, and other impairments, so all visitors may enjoy this rich source of information about the history of the brewery and the materials and procedures used to produce Pilsner Urquell beer. „After the major technical improvements in 2008, the Pilsner Urquell visitors’ tour is fully accessible to our handicapped visitors, and that includes our historic brewery cellars. Thanks to making our brewery barrier-free, hundreds of handicapped visitors have come to see our brewery,“ said Jindřiška Eliášková, Manager of Tourism and Visitors’ Services of Plzeňský Prazdroj.

Visitors with sight impairments receive their guide in the Braille alphabet. Besides the opportunity to feel a bottle or a can, there are many other artifacts and materials that allow them to engage their sense of touch and other senses along the way. The materials exhibition gives everybody a truly enjoyable opportunity to taste hops and barley malt. Movement along the tour is made possible thanks to barrier–free entrances and lifts in the bottling room and the brewing house.

Hearing-impaired visitors will receive a printed version of the tour guide and thus will receive exactly the same information as everybody else.

For those with physical impairments, the tour offers barrier–free entrance and movement throughout, as well as in the gift shop, convention centre „Secese,“ and in „Na Spilce“ restaurant. All passageways and doors along the tour are wide enough to accommodate wheelchairs, and so are the lifts. The bus used to transport our visitors is also equipped with a lift. All restrooms in the Visitors Centre and in the bottling room are also barrier-free.

Miroslav Valina’s book „Where to Without Barriers – Plzeň region“ is published by CPress Publishing. The volume is intended as the first of the new series of travel guides for seniors, families with small children, but mainly for citizens with any kind of impairment. Readers will find information about historic monuments, natural wonders, cultural institutions, buildings, amusement parks, and other interesting destinations in the Plzeň region. They will also learn about the construction and natural barriers to watch out for, and they will learn about transportation possibilities and other barrier–free facilities (accommodation, fast food, restrooms, etc.)

Notes for editors

• Plzeňský Prazdroj brewery activities for visitors include the Visitors Centre, Pilsner Urquell and Gambrinus visitors tours, the Beer Brewing Museum, and the Plzeň Historic Underground in the centre of the town.
• You can get inspired to visit by visiting www.prazdrojvisit.cz first. The website is dedicated to visitors tours, and to all services offered by the brewery for its visitors.
• Besides Czech, English, and German, visitors can also hear the tour narratives in French, Chinese, and Russian.
• The brewery’s also offers access to the social and cultural centre Secese, which is available for organising various celebrations, and cultural, educational, or presentation functions.
• The Beer Brewing Museum is located in the original house–with–the–rights–to–brew–beer in Veleslavínova street, which has been preserved in an original and authentic shape. The Museum first opened in 1959 as a part of celebrations of the 100th anniversary of the “Plzeňské pivo” (Plzeň beer) trade mark.
• An 800–metre long tour of the Plzeň Historic Underground is accessible from the Beer Brewing Museum. The labyrinth of pathways, cellars, and wells was being built under the Town of Plzeň back in the 14th century, and it is closely connected with the history and the present of the town.
• In 2010, 226,000 visitors from all around the world visited the brewery, the Beer Brewing Museum, and the Underground. The Plzeňský Prazdroj brewery itself is considered the most attractive tourist destination in the Czech Republic.
• The Department of Tourism and Cultural Heritage Care of Plzeňský Prazdroj is responsible for visitors tours, tourism, and the sale of souvenirs in Velké Popovice and Radegast breweries. In 2010, all tourist destinations and points of interest under the care of Plzeňský Prazdroj welcomed more than 250,000 visitors in total.

Contact:
Jiří Mareček
Plzeňský Prazdroj
+ 420 724 617 219

Plzeň