Rokycany plans to build a lookout tower to boost tourism

Rokycany - The fourteen-thousand strong city of Rokycany plans to build a nearly thirty-meter lookout tower on Kotel hill. Tourists will be able to see as far as Šumava from it. The city has applied for a European grant from the ROP Southwest program, and is awaiting a decision, which should come soon. The municipality has been promised the funds. The construction will cost approximately six million CZK and is expected to boost tourism in what was once a significantly industrial city, the third largest in the Plzeň region. This was stated by Mayor Vladimír Šmolík (ČSSD).
    "Everything is ready, and we will immediately start selecting suppliers," he said. The mayor expects that the price in the tender will decrease due to competition among construction companies during the crisis, by half a million to a million crowns. The lookout tower already has a building permit. The city plans to open it next May, at the start of the tourist season.
    The structure, made of iron and wood, will reportedly be a very quick build, according to Šmolík. A spiral staircase will lead to the viewing platform, allowing tourists to rise above the treetops. The European grant should amount to five million crowns. If Rokycany doesn’t receive the promised 85 percent, they will not proceed with the project.
    Kotel hill, at an elevation of about 580 meters above sea level and about five kilometers from the center of Rokycany, is the second-largest hill surrounding the city after Žďár, which lies in a dip among four peaks. "Kotel is the best for the lookout tower. Čilina is forested and there is already a mobile operator's mast there, and Žďár is further from Rokycany," he mentioned. The fourth is the relatively distant Vršíček, where there is already a Baroque pilgrimage church at an elevation of 431 meters above sea level. A road leads to Kotel hill, which is entirely managed by the city forests, where the city plans to build a parking lot.