The official opening ceremony took place in February 2007 and made the Czech Republic the 26th country[2] to have its own scientific base on the continent.

The station is the property of Masaryk University in Brno and was named after the father of modern genetics, the meteorologist Gregor Johann Mendel.

[3] It was driven partly by political interests of the Soviet Union,[3] but mostly by an effort to expand the biological, glaciological, climatological and geological research in Czechoslovakia.

[4] Afterwards, it was proposed to build a common station of the countries of the Visegrád Group (the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland and Hungary).

The ice-free surroundings and large distance from other station – the closest one is the Argentinian Marambio Base,[5] more than 70 kilometres (43 mi) to the south-east – were the most obvious benefits of this location.

The project documentation of the station was completed during the next conference of the Committee for Environmental Protection in 2003, but it was refused due to changes made after the deadline.

[5] It faces the Prince Gustav Channel, which is 10–20 kilometres (6.2–12.4 mi) long and used to be covered by a permanent layer of ice that disintegrated in the summer of 1994.

[11] Thanks to a rain shadow cast by the Antarctic Peninsula, the annual precipitation is low – about 300 millimetres (12 in)[12] –and the occasional snowfall quickly melts and is absorbed into the ground.

[14] For Antarctica, weather conditions were very favourable during the construction, but the temperature was still between −8–+6 °C (18–43 °F) and the winds reached 120 kilometres per hour (75 mph), sometimes blowing incessantly for several days.

The members of the scientific team, a representative from the Czech embassy in Argentina and the dean of the Faculty of Science at Masaryk University all attended the ceremony.

[16][17] The project was financed by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic and owned by the Masaryk University.

[citation needed] Compared to other older Antarctic bases, the station is rather small and stands out among the often overlarge buildings previously built in Antarctica by other countries.

[6] There is a grating made of Oak railway sleepers embedded in the shallow foundations of the building; this structure is no less than 40 centimetres (16 in) above the ground to reduce Heat losses caused by the cold Antarctic soil.

The external surface of the walls is covered with Plywood to protect the structure from adverse effects of the environment (sea salt aerosol, occasional Dust storms).

The roof slopes to the south at a pitch of 5% and is covered with a PVC board, which protects the building from Ultraviolet radiation.

[6] The station features a well thought-out system of Alternative energy sources that decreases the consumption of diesel oil in the summer months.

[5] Originally, there were also flat plate collectors heating water for the kitchen and the bathroom during warm days attached to the wall.

However, the capacity of these collectors was found to be insufficient; they were removed and Solar cells producing electric energy were installed in their place.

Communication with the outside world is possible thanks to the Bender satellite technology system based on the Inmarsat network and developed in cooperation with the Faculty of Electrical Engineering at the Czech Technical University in Prague.

From geological perspective, it is an area of chalk sediments rich in fossils with occasional intrusions of igneous rock.

The consequences of climate change have been observed in this area since the mid 20th century in the retreat of glaciers and colonisation of the exposed surface by non-vascular plants.

The freshwater lakes in the surrounding area contain interesting and hitherto uninvestigated communities of algae, cyanobacteria and simple animal species.

[10] There has been basic ornithological research as well; however, the Nesting season of most birds starts in mid November, while ornithologist usually arrive at the station only at the beginning of January.