Mountain Hotel and Television Transmitter Ještěd

Modern architecture on the tentative list and you can spend the night there! No question that I couldn't resist this temptation, and so I planned an overnight stay at the Mountain-top Hotel Ještěd on my trip to Czechia in October 2021.
I spent the day hiking in the Jizera Mountains, the Czech part of the Beech Forest WHS. Therefore, I approached Ještěd from the east. From this direction, you can see the tower from afar. Its unique shape elegantly extends the mountain peak into a pointed needle. From the town of Liberec it is about five kilometres on a winding road up to the Ještěd peak, the last few hundred metres are only open for guests of the hotel. Therefore, it is probably better to take the cable car, at least on weekends and when there is snow. Ještěd seems to be very popular with hikers in summer and for skiing in winter.

When you arrive at the hotel, you immediately understand why it is called "Mountain-top". The tower stands directly on the summit and occupies the entire area. In front of it there is just enough space for the cars of the hotel guests and for a small bistro with some tables outside. Behind the hotel is the cable car station and there is not even enough space to capture the tower as a whole in a photo. So there is not much to do up there: walk around the tower, take a few photos and enjoy the …

When we look back, we often judge periods and events from the end result. E.g. the Star Wars prequels are pointless because everyone knows who the annoying brat named Anakin turns into. With communism it's similar. We know it failed. We know people were waiting in lines to get bananas. We have seen pictures of the post communist, downtrodden cities. Consequently, we assume, that communism was a big fluke from the start and the West always lightyears ahead on wealth and progress.

This is a view that doesn't reflect history. In the 50s, people were genuinely scared of the Soviets. And it wasn't just about the nukes they had. Or the different worldview. The Soviets put a man into space first, quite a technical achievement. This triggered the Sputnik Crisis in the late 50s/early 60s where the West was playing catch up.

When we think about communist architecture we either see the Stalinist buildings, e.g. the Palace of Culture and Science in Warsaw or the Seven Sisters in Moscow. Or ugly concrete apartment complexes (German Plattenbau) found all across Eastern Europe, e.g. Berlin Marzahn or Halle Neustadt. Ironically, there are also Plattenbaus in Western Germany (in Hamburg alone I can name several areas), but that never got the same "failed state" narrative.

Jested is interesting as it presents a post Stalinist, communist architecture vision, a vision that also managed to score a Pritzker prize in the West. From the pictures, you get a good …

Don't even ask me how to pronounce Ještěd. I tried telling people on the trip about my stay there and they were like "what, where?" and when they finally figured it out the conversation had already shifted to something else.

I really like the tower. You can visit as a day trip but I highly recommend an overnight retro stay. It's not cheap for Czechia and the affordable option has shared showers but I thought it was so nice to stay here when the tourists are gone. The on-site restaurant isn't too overpriced and makes a great effort to stay open for only the hotel guests having dinner. Also if you stay overnight you get priority parking rights at the top as far as I remember but reports indicate this could change depending on the season. Gotta be careful on the way up because there are many people walking along the road. As you can tell by my picture it wasn't the best weather (this is Summer 2017) so the crowds were acceptable.

You may notice I didn't vote up or down for inclusion. I like the building and architecture and it makes for a good itinerary but I have no idea what value they are trying to justify it. Their document is more of less a brochure for the hotel. If I understand correctly it shows growth in tourism in the early 20th century. The Alpine road in Austria is going for the same inscription reason. Including …

The hotel and transmitter on the top of Mountain of Ještěd belongs to the top attractions in Northern Czechia, and I visited it many times already. Reaching the summit of Ještěd by the cable car (or by walk, or by car to the nearby parking lot) is my usual half-day trip during almost every visit to the town of Liberec (in the case of good weather, of course). Other interesting places in Liberec are the main square with the huge neo-gothic municipal hall, and also both Botany and ZOO gardens.

The Ještěd Mountain is of volcanic origin, and from the orographical point of view, it is a single Mountains separated from its geological neighbors. The conically shaped transmitter on the top fits perfectly to the extinct volcano and surrounding landscape.

The hotel & transmitter represents one of the most valuable modern architecture of the second half of 20th Century in the former Czechoslovakia, and its so-called “Brussels” influences are clearly visible. The “Brussels style” was important school of design and architecture based on the Czechoslovakian contribution to the EXPO exhibition in Brussels, 1958.

I have never been accommodated in the hotel, but I usually go for lunch to the restaurant located in the round basement (PHOTO), which is an open circular space made from glass & steel.

I am maybe a little bit biased concerning this nomination, but I would be really happy if this beautiful iconic building becomes WHS in the future. However, I cannot …

“20th C technology” and “post WWII architecture” are 2 under-represented inscribed themes. Czechia’s Jested TV Mast could help to fill both gaps, so we decided to take a look as we passed nearby in Sep 2017.

It is situated on top of Jested Mountain, a 1012 m quartz peak in NW Czechia. A wooden hotel had been built at the summit in 1906 and a cable car followed in 1933. In 1963, however, the hotel burned down. The mountain was then chosen for the construction of a TV tower and the architectural tender as issued required the construction of 2 buildings - a TV tower and a small “replacement” hotel/restaurant. The winning Modernist design, however, combined the 2 in a single building with a striking conical form to create a unique skyline. Construction took from 1966 to 1973 and the Architect Karel Hubáček was awarded the “Perret Award” in 1969. This is given every 3 years by the International Union of Architects for “Technology applied to Architecture”. Other recipients have since included, 1978 - Piano and Rogers, 1987 - Calatrava , 2002 - Foster. So, it is no “minor” honour.

Our initial plan included an overnight at the hotel. I had to wait some weeks before a vacancy became available on Booking.com for our required date. Room prices were around £64 double with shared bathroom and £110 with private facilities. Even the former was somewhat above our normal guideline level for hotels but, what …