Thanks to UNESCO, interest in the Red Death Tower in the Island is growing

Ostrov - Following the inscription of the Mining Region of Erzgebirge/Krušnohoří on the UNESCO World Heritage List, interest in the Red Tower of Death in Vykmanov near Ostrov in the Karlovy Vary region is rising. The monument, which commemorates the suffering of political prisoners during the processing of uranium ore in the 1950s, should therefore be opened to the public soon, said Ostrov mayor Jan Bureš (ODS) to reporters today.

The tower is not generally accessible to the public and can only be visited by arrangement with the owner, which is the Confederation of Political Prisoners. "We are therefore preparing, in cooperation with the Confederation of Political Prisoners and the Ostrov prison, to allow access and to create a guiding system, so that ordinary people as well as organized groups can get there," said Bureš.

Currently, the prison, which borders the monument, allows announced organized tours to park their buses in its parking areas. "With the help of prisoners, they also carry out maintenance, mowing the grass, and take care of the area," the mayor added. In the future, the tower is expected to be transferred to the management of the National Heritage Institute.

The seven-story tower was used in the 1950s as a place for the final processing of uranium ore. Prisoners were forced, without any protective suits, to haul ore loaded in carts to the top floor of the tower and pour it onto huge sieves through which the ore fell to the ground floor. As a result of poor diet, hard labor, and high radioactivity, most of the workers who worked in the Tower of Death died. The Confederation of Political Prisoners of the Czech Republic acquired the tower with two adjacent wings in 2008, the same year it was declared a national cultural monument. It is one of 22 sites inscribed this year collectively as the Mining Region of Erzgebirge/Krušnohoří on the UNESCO World Heritage List.