Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Petřín Lookout Tower

The Petřín Lookout Tower (Czech: Petřínská rozhledna) is a 60 metre high steel framework tower in Prague, which strongly resembles the Eiffel Tower. Although it is much shorter than the Eiffel Tower, it stands atop a sizable hill, Petřín, so the top is actually at a higher altitude than that of the Eiffel Tower. The Petřínská rozhledna was built in 1891 and was used as an observation tower as well as a transmission tower.

When I climbed the tower, it was a fantastically clear day providing some decent skyline photos. Prague is unquestionably one of the most beautiful cities in the world.
In 1889, members of The Club of Czech Tourists visited world exposition in Paris and were inspired by the Eiffel Tower. Later, they collected a sufficient amount of money and in March, 1891 the building of the tower started for the General Land Centennial Exhibition (1891). It was finished in only 4 months.

In 1953 on Petřínská rozhledna a TV broadcasting antenna was installed, whereby the program feed was performed by a directional radio antenna. This served as Prague's main TV signal provider until the opening of the Žižkov Television Tower in late 1992.  Žižkov is due west from Petřín.  In 1999, the tower was completely renovated.


Isole Borromee