Masarykova chata at Šerlich has been serving tourists for 100 years

Prague - One of the most visited places by tourists in the Orlické mountains is the hill Šerlich, dominated by the Masarykova chata. This lodge has stood at the summit at an altitude of 1019 meters above sea level for 100 years, having been opened on September 27, 1925. According to the owner of the chata, the Club of Czech Tourists (KČT), the building is a symbol of patriotism, the First Republic, and Czech tourism.

The lodge was built on the site of the former settlement of Šerlich by the Club of Czechoslovak Tourists from Hradec Králové, initiated by the MP and promoter of the Orlické mountains, Jindřich Štemberka. The lodge was constructed between 1924 and 1925 according to the design of the Brno architect Bohuslav Fuchs. In September 1938, the lodge was attacked by Nazis from the Freikorps, who unsuccessfully attempted to set it on fire. During World War II, the lodge was used by injured German pilots, and families of Nazi leaders vacationed there. After the war, the lodge once again bore the name Masaryk, but in the 1950s it was renamed Chata ČSTV na Šerlichu. The lodge underwent further renaming in 1968 and 1990.

A similar fate befell the Masaryk bust, which was ceremoniously unveiled on a stone pylon attached to the terrace of the lodge on September 8, 1935, and which had to leave its place three times. The bust by Leoš Kubíček was moved as early as October 1938 when the lodge's then tenant hid it from the approaching Germans. Tourists managed to return the bust to the Masaryk lodge in the spring of 1949, but it displeased the communists, so it was removed in the 1950s and ended up in a depositary of the Rychnov museum for nearly twenty years. From there, on May 9, 1968, it was moved back to the pylon in front of the lodge. However, history soon repeated itself, and at the beginning of the 1970s, the bust ended up back in the depositary. It returned to its place on March 7, 1990, on Masaryk's birthday.

The lodge, which has a favorable location not far from the highest peak of the Orlické mountains Velká Deštná (1115 meters above sea level) with views into Bohemia and Poland, offers conditions for hiking and skiing tourism. The lodge has a capacity of 54 beds. The local restaurant features a supporting column adorned with carvings by Leoš Kubíček and a bass-relief of a bearded mountain dweller, who today is considered by many to be Rampušák, a modern spirit of the Orlické mountains.

According to Radek Souček, the operator and tenant of the lodge, the growing interest from tourists is partly due to the lack of mobile signal there. The spirit of the place and the history of the lodge also attract tourists. Over the last six years, significant investments have been made at the lodge, according to Souček. "The lodge received a new boiler room and wastewater treatment plant. The electricity is new on the first and second floors. Now the installations will be done on the ground floor, where the kitchen, restaurant, and staff rooms are," Souček said this September.