Ještěd is a peak above Liberec. On its summit stands a building combining a hotel, a restaurant and a television transmitter, designed by the architect Karel Hubáček.[1]
History of the site
On 13 January 1907 a mountain chalet built by the German Mountain Club for the Ještěd and Jizera Mountains was opened on the summit. Construction took six months. The stone building had a lookout tower twenty-eight metres high and contained guest rooms, a dormitory, a common room and a taproom. The chalet became the mountain's new silhouette and a popular destination for visitors.[1]
On Thursday 31 January 1963 the chalet burned down while a frozen pipe was being carelessly thawed. The fire was visible from a wide area. On the day after the fire, designers from Liberec arrived at the summit and found that the building could not be repaired. An architectural competition was announced for a new form of the transmitter and of a hotel with a restaurant. The winning entry was the project of the architect Karel Hubáček, who was the only one to place the transmitter and the hotel with restaurant in a single building.[1]
The foundation stone of the new building was laid on 30 July 1966. Construction lasted ten years, and after 1968 it slowed markedly; according to the operator, the construction was "almost halted".[1] According to the operator, a number of then new technologies and materials were used in the construction, many of which were later used on other buildings in Czechia and abroad.[1] The building was completed in the summer of 1973 and handed over to the public in September of the same year.[1]
Awards
In January 1969 the architect Karel Hubáček received the Auguste Perret Prize, awarded by the International Union of Architects, for the design of Ještěd. According to the operator of the building, Ještěd is the only building in the country with this award.[1] Hubáček was to collect the prize in Buenos Aires, but the then state regime forbade him at the last moment to travel.[1]
Ownership and operation after 1989
After November 1989 Ještěd became the subject of privatisation and passed into private hands. At that time the original interior furnishings from the 1970s were replaced; according to the operator, they were sold off cheaply to interested buyers or disposed of.[1]
In 1996 the company owning Ještěd ran into financial difficulties and bankruptcy was declared on it; the restaurant and the hotel were closed. The then trustee in bankruptcy approached new operators, and in September 1996 the company Ještěd spol. s r. o. began operating on Ještěd, which by its own account still runs the hotel and restaurant under a lease. Ownership relations to the building were settled only four years later.[1]
Protection
The Ministry of Culture entered Ještěd among the immovable cultural monuments on 26 March 1998.[1]