Experiencing Prague from the Zizkov Tower

Figure 1: Prague TV Tower

If one desires a grand view of Prague’s beautiful city, the Zizkov TV Tower is the best location to get it. Standing 708.6 feet is the air, this TV tower is an unmistakable landmark in the city. It can be said that “on a clear day, one can see to a distance of up to 60 miles” from inside the viewing rooms.  It was originally built in 1985-1992 despite a tremendous amount of protests from locals. Locals feared that the massive construction may become an eyesore in comparison to the notoriously traditional city architecture. On the contrary to local assumption, the tower proves a breathtaking 360 degree view of Prague, alongside TV and radio signal.

 Housing complex from inside the Tower 

The views really are magnificent, allowing spectators to see the clustering nature of the city structures. City guides often speak of the uniformity of Prague apartment buildings, but it is really not put into perspective until seen from 700 plus feet in the sky. It is as if all the urban structures are casted from the same mold and plopped on a designated plot of land. No apartment is given more space than another, and no roof is pitched higher. The entire city is traditionally designed in a hierarchy: the tallest building being the castle, followed by the church, then government buildings, and lastly the citizen buildings. Families, and people with similar trades, were grouped in the same housing complexes, with an internal common space for the complex. This allowed for the king to have access to the best in each trade by keeping the professional people grouped. What these clusters really created was smaller community developments within the entirety of the city.

         

Closer view of Housing Complex from inside the Tower 

The tower shines light on many differences in the urban design. The major difference that can be seen is in the color of the building façades themselves; decorating the city with pastel shades of pinks, yellows, greens, blues, creams, and bright red roof tops. The color scheme pays respects to the Art Nuevo style decoration that was added to the buildings.  It almost looks like a toy model, which is a reoccurring theme in the city of Prague. Yet, the TV Tower goes against the traditional aesthetic of the city. The tower itself is designed more futuristic, with rounded cube pods that project out from the interior of the structure.

The exterior resembles some form of a space station in the sky, with giant figures crawling up the tower poles. At first glace, the figures make the tower look like it is infested with black ants. Gladly, this is not actually so. Czech sculptor David Cerny’s designed these black fiberglass babies, or miminka in Czech, to crawl up the tower. The black color of the fiberglass babies pop against the white of the structure making it look even more modern.

Fiberglass Babies crawling up the Tower

 The white of the structure contrast to the pastel colors of the building that surrounds it. It really makes one wonder, why create something so different in such a traditional environment?

Potentially, the Tower stands as a symbol for a change from traditional Prague. Simply saying that the world is evolving. It speaks to the idea that in the middle of tradition and uniformity is a new culture that is rising towards innovation and technology.  

View of Prague Tower from a distance

Enjoying the view of the city in the Tower's bubble chair!