Severočeské museum received documentation of Ještěd from Vítkovice

Liberec - The North Bohemian Museum in Liberec received documentation for the mountain hotel and transmitter Ještěd from the trade unions of the Vítkovice engineering works. In Vítkovice, an iron structure of the unique tower was created in the 1960s, which supports the individual floors of the hotel and is concealed by a fiberglass shell. The package contained not only technical drawings but also static calculations or even an orange shirt from the 1970s featuring the Ještěd motif. "This is documentation from the initial phase of the Ještěd project from 1964-65," said museum director Jiří Křížek to reporters today.

The cornerstone of the Ještěd hotel and transmitter was laid in 1966, and it has been serving the public since 1973. It is among the most original architectural works in the Czech Republic. For its elegance and practical use of modern technologies, the building received the prestigious Augusta Perret Award in 1969. Ještěd is a national cultural monument, and people voted it as the Czech building of the 20th century. The Liberec Region is working to have it added to the UNESCO heritage list. Since 2000, the hotel and transmitter have been owned by Czech Radiocommunications, which acquired Ještěd for 85 million CZK and has since invested tens of millions more in its restoration. However, the building needs reconstruction, which is estimated to cost between 200 and 400 million CZK.

In the package from Vítkovice, the director of the Liberec museum found, for example, the static calculation for the fiberglass shell. "There are amazing photographs from the construction process from the 1970s here. Some shots that we did not know until now. Everything has exceptional value because the Ještěd archive is very fragmented and scattered across different corners and archives," noted Křížek. The Liberec museum would therefore like to concentrate the documentation related to Ještěd in the future, so it is more easily accessible for researchers, historians, or heritage conservationists. "It's such an important building that it deserves to have some kind of documentation center created," he said.

In the future, there could be a dedicated exhibition for Ještěd directly in the mountain hotel and transmitter. "It would certainly be welcomed. Many people, visitors, hotel guests, and experts request some sort of tour or more information. They don't want to just eat or stay there. However, there are currently no spaces for that," said Milena Lánská from the Ještěd 73 association, which has been involved in restoring the original interiors for several years. Under the main staircase, there is now a small exhibition set up as a trial, primarily showcasing furniture and equipment, whether original or replicas made in recent years based on original documentation. According to Lánská, interest in it is high.