Ještěd Tower

Ještěd Tower (Czech: Hotel a televizní vysílač na Ještědu) is a television transmitter on top of Mount Ještěd near Liberec in the Czech Republic. Measuring 94 m (308 ft), it is made of reinforced concrete shaped in a "hyperboloid" form. The tower was designed by architect Karel Hubáček, who was assisted by Zdeněk Patrman, involved in building statics, and by Otakar Binar, who designed the interior furnishing. It took the team three years to finalize the structure design (1963–1966). The construction itself took seven years to finish (1966–1973).

The hyperboloid shape was chosen since it naturally extends the silhouette of the hill and, moreover, resists the extreme climate conditions on the summit of Mount Ještěd. The design combines the operation of a mountaintop hotel and a television transmitter. The hotel and restaurant are located in the lowest sections of the tower. Before construction of the hotel, two huts stood near the mountain summit: one was built in the middle of the 19th century, and the other was added in the early 20th century. Both buildings had a wooden structure, and both burned to the ground in the 1960s.

The tower is one of the dominant features of the North Bohemian landscape. The gallery on the ground floor and the restaurant on the first offers views as far as Poland and Germany. The tower has been on the list of Czech cultural monuments since 1998, becoming a national cultural monument in 2006. In 2007, it was entered on the Tentative List of UNESCO World Heritage sites. In 1969, Karel Hubáček was awarded the Perret Prize of the International Union of Architects (UIA).