Ještěd TV tower

further construction data:
Laying of the foundation stone:	July 30, 1966
Construction:	Hyperboloid construction
Civil engineer :	Zdeněk Patrman
Opening:	October 21, 1973
other additional data:
Height of concrete core:	30 m
Seats restaurant:	300 seats
Number of hotel rooms:	14 rooms
Number of hotel rooms:	56 guests

Position map

Ještěd TV tower

The Ještěd TV tower is around 100 meters high and was built between 1963 and 1973 by the architect Karel Hubáček as a hyperboloid construction. The television tower stands on the top of Mount Ještěd in the Jeschken Mountains near Liberec in the Czech Republic and houses a hotel. The shape of the building complements the silhouette of the mountain in such a way that it is perceived as a natural unit with the mountain from a great distance. The building is a landmark of the entire region around Liberec. The hotel tower was the central setting in Jaroslav Rudiš's novel “Grandhotel” and the subsequent Czech film Grandhotel (2006).

history

On January 31, 1963, several fires destroyed the observation tower and accommodation for hikers on Ještěd. The architect Karel Hubáček won a competition for his concept of integrating a hotel and a transmission tower into one building. The foundation stone was laid on July 30, 1966. The construction of the tower was delayed by the crackdown of the Prague Spring on August 21, 1968. A provisional radio station was set up on Ještěd, which tried to mobilize the population to civil disobedience to the communist regime and remained undetected until August 27, 1968.

Resistance formed against the half-finished tower. The work on the building was accused of “capitalist construction” and the use of “western materials”. The political leadership particularly disliked the individual interior design. The architect was considered persona non grata due to the special architectural path and was not allowed to attend the opening ceremony on October 21, 1973.

description

The lower 30 meters of the Ještěd TV tower consists of a rigid concrete core with a diameter of 13 meters. Up to a height of 41 meters, the structure tapers to 5 meters in diameter. Above this, a steel pipe is connected up to a height of 100 meters. The shaft, which is otherwise typical for television towers, is omitted due to its location on the high mountain peak. In the lower part there are five floors that house a hotel, a restaurant and operating rooms for broadcasting. The restaurant has 300 seats; the hotel has 14 rooms and can accommodate a maximum of 56 guests. The outer shape is dominated by a parabolic curved cone, the skeleton of which is clad on the outside with aluminum. The antenna mast is clad in plastic to allow the antenna transmitter to pass through. The tower is divided by three ring platforms.

Awards

The building received numerous prizes:

In 1969 it was awarded the Auguste Perret Prize of the Union Internationale des Architectes .
In 1998 it became a cultural monument of the Czech Republic.
A survey of Czech experts carried out in 2000 voted the tower the best / most important Czech building of the 20th century .
In 2006 the building was awarded the rank of National Cultural Monument of the Czech Republic , listed as number 297 .
An admission procedure to the Unesco world heritage list was planned for 2010 .

literature

Specialist literature

Friedrich von Borries , Matthias Böttger, Florian Heilmeyer: TV Towers - television towers, 8,559 meters in politics and architecture , Jovis Verlag 2009, ISBN 978-3-86859-024-1 , pages 98–111.
Erwin Heinle , Fritz Leonhardt : Towers of all times, of all cultures . Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Stuttgart 1997, ISBN 3-421-02931-8 , page 255.
Jiří Jiroutek: Fenomén Ještěd , Nakladatelství Ještěd 2008, ISBN 978-80-254-2225-0 .

novel

Jaroslav Rudiš : Grand Hotel , Luchterhand Literaturverlag, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-630-62139-5 .

Movie

Grandhotel , movie, Czech Republic 2006, 95 minutes, director: David Ondříček.

Web links

Commons : Ještěd TV tower - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

References and comments

↑ The altitude information varies between 90 and 100 meters depending on the source
↑ Description of the film Grandhotel (PDF; 230 kB)
↑ von Borries, Böttger, Heilmeyer: TV-Towers - Fernsehtürme, 8,559 meters politics and architecture , page 105
↑ Lexicon of Art , under the keyword radio and television towers
^ Exhibition in Berlin about Karel Hubáček , baunetz.de, May 12, 2006
↑ Ještěd was abused in advertising for the World Ski Championships on iDNES.cz (Czech).

↑ von Borries, Böttger, Heilmeyer: TV-Towers - Fernsehtürme, 8,559 meters politics and architecture , page 106

[1] The altitude information varies between 90 and 100 meters depending on the source

[2] Description of the film Grandhotel (PDF; 230 kB)

[3] von Borries, Böttger, Heilmeyer: TV-Towers - Fernsehtürme, 8,559 meters politics and architecture , page 105

[4] Lexicon of Art , under the keyword radio and television towers

[5] Exhibition in Berlin about Karel Hubáček , baunetz.de, May 12, 2006

[6] Ještěd was abused in advertising for the World Ski Championships on iDNES.cz (Czech).

[7] von Borries, Böttger, Heilmeyer: TV-Towers - Fernsehtürme, 8,559 meters politics and architecture , page 106