Hotel and transmitter Ještěd, a Czech construction of the century, began to be built in July 1966

Prague – The Ještěd Mountain Hotel and Transmitter is one of the most original architectural works in the Czech Republic. The 94-meter-high hyperboloid with a circular floor plan of 33 meters in diameter uniquely combines the functions of a transmitter, hotel, and restaurant. Both experts and laypeople are still captivated by the way the building complements the silhouette of the mountain, which is 1012 meters high. The cornerstone of the hotel and transmitter on Ještěd, which is considered the Czech Building of the Century, was ceremoniously laid on July 30, 1966, and has been operational since 1973.

"The initial idea erupted from me. I knew I had to extend the mountain. And give the transmitter the shape of a cone, so that the winds could sweep over it. Ještěd is an incredibly windy mountain and a classic wall would serve much worse," recalled the creator of the building, architect Karel Hubáček. The Ještěd Hotel and Transmitter was formally handed over for use on July 9, 1973, and has been accessible to the public since September 21, 1973.

Even before it was completed, Hubáček received the prestigious Auguste Perret Prize (1969) from the International Union of Architects for the construction and practical use of modern technologies, but he could not attend due to the travel ban imposed by the then communist regime. The Ještěd Hotel and Transmitter is now a Czech national cultural monument, and its silhouette appears in the logo of the city of Liberec, in the coat of arms of the region, in the local university’s logo, and in the logo of the local first-league football club Slovan Liberec. In a survey conducted in 2000 among domestic experts, it was declared the most significant Czech building of the 20th century.

The quartzite peak of Ještěd remained almost untouched for centuries. It wasn't until 1844 that the Hasler couple from Liberec began carrying food and drink up the mountain. And when, three years later, forest ranger Herbert built the first wooden cabin on Ještěd, it was rented by the Haslers. They later built a more solid lodge on Ještěd, followed by others known as Rohan's Lodge or Rohanka.

In 1906, a large hotel was built there according to plans by Liberec builder Ernst Schäfer, featuring a huge dormitory, dozens of rooms, a social hall for 200 people, and a veranda. Everything was reduced to ashes in a fire that broke out in January 1963. As early as 1933, a cable car operated by Czech Railways began serving the public on the way to the summit of Ještěd.

An architectural competition was announced for a new project, and surprisingly, Karel Hubáček’s work was selected. "Hubáček's design was a bit of a shock for many people because after the old hotel was demolished, they were expecting some traditional mountain lodge, not a spaceship," declared Jiří Křížek, director of the North Bohemian Museum.

The jury then stated that the work stands out for its clarity and the happy harmony with which it connects with the surrounding landscape. The cornerstone for the hotel and transmitter was laid at the end of July 1966. However, building it was no small task. The most challenging aspect was the technical side of the new construction – all the antennas, which protrude on other transmitters, were placed inside the building, necessitating the development of a special laminate shell.

One problem was calculating the load of the entire structure, which was ultimately completed by Zdeněk Patrman. Many technical issues were tested here for the very first time; some components were made as prototypes or completely "on the fly" – for example, the twelve-meter-long plastic rods were eventually produced by a factory for fishing rods. The construction cost 64 million Czechoslovak crowns.

In the past, around half a million people visited the tower annually, but the operation of the hotel and restaurant has been significantly affected by the coronavirus pandemic and also by the fall of the cable car to Ještěd in October 2021 (its top station is about 100 meters east of the building), which has not been operational since then.

Since 2000, the hotel and transmitter have been owned by Czech Radiocommunications. This year, the Liberec Region also became the owner of the mountain hotel and transmitter. The heritage-protected building was taken over from Czech Radiocommunications (ČRa) along with the unique furniture designed by architect Otakar Binar. The region paid around 185 million crowns for the building, land, and furnishings, with approximately 30 percent of the building still to be used by ČRa, for which they will pay about 3.5 million crowns per year.

However, the unique structure needs a major reconstruction after half a century of operation; an assessment from 2019 estimated the costs at 400 million crowns. The actual costs, according to Governor Martin Půta (Mayors for the Liberec Region), will only be revealed by the project that the region intends to complete by the end of next year, followed by a public tender for the contractor. The work is expected to coincide with the construction of a new cable car to Ještěd, which is being prepared by the city of Liberec.

The region is also preparing a process that should result in the inscription of the Ještěd Mountain Hotel and Transmitter on the UNESCO World Heritage List. It won’t be easy and it will cost something; whether the region actually goes through with it must be decided by the regional councilors and also the assembly, said Deputy Governor Květa Vinklátová (Mayors for the Liberec Region) to ČTK in June this year. "There is no other monument in the world of this type and with this history, this story simply does not exist. I believe that Ještěd deserves a place on that list," Vinklátová stated.

Architect Karel Hubáček (1924-2011) founded the SIAL studio in 1969 with colleague Miroslav Masák, also known as the SIAL Kindergarten. The studio gained international acclaim, and from this school emerged several generations of widely recognized Czech architects. Other realized projects by Hubáček include the now demolished Ještěd Shopping Center in Liberec, the Waterworks balancing tower in Prague-Dívčí Hrad, meteorological towers in Prague-Libuš, a municipal cinema in Doksy, and a cultural house with a concert hall in Teplice.