Rising like a futuristic space ship above the old working class quarter of Žižkov, the Žižkov television tower is one of Prague's most interesting, if not, controversial, buildings.
I live one block from this mammoth structure, and yet hardly notice it at all.
The TV tower is, at 216 metres, the tallest building in the city, and it is said on a clear day it can be seen from a full 100 kilometres away. Often regarded as a relic of the communist era, work on the Žižkov TV tower began in 1985 and wasn't actually completed until 1992, 3 years after the fall of Communism here in the Czech Republic. The Žižkov tower provides quality television signal to the whole metropolitan area of Prague from the transmitter situated at the top of the tower.
At night as you can see, it is lite by the colors of the Czech Republic's flag ( and American's as well)
In 2000, sculptures by Czech artist David Černý of crawling babies were temporarily attached to the tower's pillars. These sculptures are admired by many and were returned in 2001 as a permanent installation.
The tower is 216 metres (709 feet) high, with the observation decks at 100 metres (328 feet) and the tower restaurant and cafe situated at 63 metres (207 feet) in the lower 'pods'. Elevators, equipped with speedometers, transport passengers to the different levels at a rate of 4m/s. In other words: Fast.
At the time of its construction, rumours have also circulated that the tower was planned to be used to jam incoming western radio and television transmissions (particularly Radio Free Europe) and that it had a potential use as a communications facility for Warsaw Pact forces in the event of an attack on (or attack by) NATO.
We will never know...
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