Windmills are among those monuments that have a technical character. Using some of them as examples, it is possible to illustrate the problems of the conservation of individual monuments with varied types of ownership where the different owners use varied approaches in order to conserve the essence and authenticity of the structures.

Within Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia, there are around 900 documented sites where windmills once stood. Unlike the Netherlands, where windmills were used for the most part to drive pumps, waging the Dutch people's endless battle with water, in the Czech lands windmills served mainly to grind corn - either into flour or as feed for domesticated animals. Several tens of windmills have remained preserved in the Czech lands to date.

In the floods of August 2002, the floodwaters swept away the steel pedestrian bridge that was built across the main riverbed of the Beroun River, connecting the centre of the town of Beroun with the local bus station. This article describes the course of construction and reconstruction of this interestingly designed bridge.

The bridge was built as a steel truss bridge with a lower bridge floor. The riverbed was traversed by three bridge spans at 27m each. The walkways onto the bridge were designed as stairways on reinforced concrete ramps. The central reinforced concrete pillars were fitted in cofferdams protected by steel sheet piling, left in the riverbed as protection against subsurface erosion. The bridge had a horizontal, straight-line design that enabled the passage of water levels raised to the equivalent of what could be called the flood of the century. During the August floods, which exceeded that level, the bridge floor was flooded with water, and, after the bridge was struck by a truck tank that had been carried away by the current, one pillar was destroyed and all three spans collapsed into the riverbed.

At the end of August the town of Beroun issued a call for tender to commission small-scale work aimed at determining the overall shape of the footbridge, its location, and the level of the century-level flood water (Q100) at a spot height of +220.38 m Bpv.

The designs (and the contracting conditions of the town of Beroun) included wheelchair friendly access as a standard feature for any project.

In order for the measurements taken of the thermally insulated properties of a building to be capable of being informative, the difference between the temperature of the air inside and the temperature of the air outside must be at least 15 ^°C, which means preferably an outdoor temperature around zero while regular heating is running inside the building. The measurements must not be influenced by direct sunlight or by an external cooling effect on the surface created by wind. It is best to conduct measurements after sunset.

Images taken on a thermocamera have a temperature scale that is usually revealed in colours (but it can also be in black and white) as temperature indicators. Our archival images show the scale on the right. An important parameter in measuring is the so-called coefficient of emissivity. Leaving aside the complicated formulae and laws of physics, it suffices to note that every material has different emissions properties. The ideal physical full radiator has a coefficient of 1, and the majority of common construction materials (such as concrete, stone, plasters, brick, glass and even some coatings with inorganic pigments) have a coefficient of emissivity that is not far off from 1. Metals, especially shiny surfaces, have a considerably lower coefficient. Thermocameras are characterised by their broad scope. Only on few other instruments is it possible to measure temperatures below freezing point and at the same time as temperature of 2000 oC, and to still achieve a definition to several hundredths of a degree. As an example we have chosen images in which it is clear at first glance what the image indicates, without it being necessary to include a photograph of the object being measured.