About
Home > Observation Tower > AboutThe name of the hill at the top of which the observation tower was built is not very common in Czech - the word "Podvrší" means "Underhill" in English. Can a hill be called Underhill? Why not. The name was very likely derived from a forest road running nearby.
The first tower used to stand there as early as 1920s and served - together with a nearby triangulation point - for geodetic purposes.The top was 21 m above the ground and could be reached by two ladders (the altitude of the hill is 590 m above the sea level). This tower was demolished in 1947.
The modern telecommunication tower was financed by Eurotel Praha, spol. s.r.o. company and was set to work in August 2001. Since its completion, it has served mainly as a nodal point connecting radio-relay routes with their centrals and for propagation of GSM 900 signal for mobile phones. The structure was designed by Ing. Jan Tomčala from Teplotechna Ostrava, a.s., and this company was also the main provider of assembly work on the mast and the viewing platform.
The structure is supported by high-quality concrete foundations, 1.5 m deep and of 11 m in diameter. The foundations contain 179 m3 of concrete plus 3.6-ton steel armature supporting the mast. At the foot of the tower, there is a brick building with 5 rooms, 3 of which are used by mobile network operators.
The 37 m mast was constructed of ferroconcrete rings (199 cm in diameter and 16 cm thick) joined by 36 mm threaded tension bars and steel nuts. Aerial systems are attached at the top. The inner part of the tower stores wiring and cables which connect aerial systems with the equipment placed in the brick building, and a ladder with platforms used by assembly and maintenance workers. The total height of the tower is 48.84 m; the platform is located 32 m above the foot of the tower.
From above the roof of the brick building, a steel staircase with platforms spirals up around the mast. The staircase made of step gratings has 168 stairs in total. There is, of course, a banister on both sides of the stairscase with 51 mm thick handrails. The total weight of the construction – staircase and platform – is 21,550 kg.
The top platform is located 621 m above the sea level with the capacity of 27 people. Although it may seem that the way up requires a lot of effort, it is not so.
The platform offers magnificent views of the whole Moravian Karst, from Helišova skála in the north-east to Hády hill in the south-west. Other visible sites include cooling towers of Dukovany nuclear power plant 52 km to SW, Pálava Hills near Mikulov 57 km to SE, Skalky, the highest hill of the Drahany Highland ( 735 m) with a meteorological radar to NE, Czech-Moravian Highland to SW and three observation towers: Babí lom near Lelekovice in the south, Milenka near Rudka in the west and a tower near Kozárov.