Jested Tower

Jested is the 1,012 metre hill directly above Liberec, and the building on top of it is the reason to come: a concrete cone that continues the line of the mountain upward, completed in the early 1970s to hold a transmitter, a hotel and a restaurant inside one shape. The architect worked out that the summit needed extending rather than decorating, and the result is one of the few Czech buildings of its period that people travel to see. Inside, rooms and corridors follow the curve of the outer wall, and much of the original fitting survives. A cable car ran up from Horni Hanychov in a few minutes until 31 October 2021, when a cabin crashed and the line was closed indefinitely; the walk takes about two hours.

History

When the old Ještěd lodge burned in January 1963, its operator and the Prague radio administration decided to build a new complex on the summit that would be both a mountain hotel with a restaurant and a television transmitter. An architectural competition was held in February 1963 with eleven entries, and Karel Hubáček's design, the only one that met both requirements, was chosen on 22 April 1963. With the engineer Zdeněk Patrman on the structure and Otakar Binar on the interiors, Hubáček spent 1963-1966 on the design, solving the problems of the summit's harsh climate with help from the Academy of Sciences and the Czech Technical University; some of their solutions, such as the tuned mass damper, were later used in other towers. The foundation stone was laid on 30 July 1966, the transmitter began operating on 1 May 1971, and the tower, 94 metres high and hyperboloid in shape, was formally opened with its hotel and restaurant on 9 July 1973, at a cost of 64 million crowns (Wikipedia, Ještěd Tower).

What's there

• The cone - the hyperboloid concrete shell that continues the profile of the hill instead of sitting on it.
• The interior - curved corridors, original fittings and a restaurant level following the shape of the wall.
• The summit terrace - the open ground around the base, with Liberec directly below in its basin.
• The cable car - the short steep ride up from Horni Hanychov at the end of the Liberec tram line, out of service since the crash of October 2021.

When to go

Clear winter days give the sharpest views, with the Krkonose ridge visible in snow. Summer evenings are good for the light over Liberec. Check webcams first, because the summit spends a lot of the year inside cloud. The cable car has not run since the 2021 crash, so check whether a replacement is operating before counting on it.

Good to know

The summit is in cloud often, and then you have paid for a ride into grey. The interior is dated in places and the restaurant trades heavily on the view rather than the food. With the cable car closed since 2021, do not count on a ride up; check what transport is running. The building is a working transmitter, so parts are closed. It is cold and exposed on top.

Nearby

Liberec sits below with its town hall and gallery, and the Jizera mountains run north from the city.

Key facts