Žižkov Television Tower
Three steel tubes shaped like a launch gantry — one pillar breaks ranks and climbs higher than the other two, giving Prague's skyline its sharpest punctuation mark.
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Six of the tower's nine pods are open to visitors, with a panoramic observatory at 93 metres. Designed by Václav Aulický and completed in 1992, the 216-metre structure weighs 11,800 tonnes and doubles as a meteorological observatory. Every evening since 2006 it glows in rotating colors — usually the Czech state tricolor — to mark Žižkov's 125th anniversary as a city.
What to look for
- The asymmetric silhouette: one column rises noticeably higher than the other two to carry radio antennas, producing the rocket-and-gantry profile
- The six visitor-accessible pods — the lowest three sit at 63 metres and house a restaurant and café bar
- The nightly color illumination in the Czech tricolor, switched on each evening since 2006
Observatory at 93 m; three elevators travel at 4 m/s. A single luxury hotel room occupies a pod at 70 m for those who want to sleep inside the tower.
Žižkov Television Tower is one of 36 sights worth the detour in Prague, all bundled offline in Voyage GO — download the Prague pack and it sits on your map with no signal, filling your travel passport the moment you walk past.
More to see in Prague
- Prague CastleThe Guinness-record largest ancient castle on Earth — and the Czech president still works inside it.
- Charles BridgeCzech legend holds that Charles IV chose his construction start time — 5:31am on 9 July 1357 — because the digits form a palindrome he believed would imbue the bridge with additional strength.
- St. Vitus CathedralOne theory holds that the founding duke may have chosen St. Vitus partly because his name echoes a Slavic sun god — making conversion easier for a populace already devoted to the solar deity Svantevit. Christian and pagan communities shared this hilltop until at least the 11th century.
- Dancing HouseTwo interlocked towers shaped like mid-dance partners, built on a Vltava riverfront plot that sat bombed-out and derelict for decades.
- Prague Astronomical ClockEvery hour, a skeleton marks the time — on a clock mechanism that has been running since 1410.
- National Museum in PragueThe building that closes off Wenceslas Square has anchored Czech protests, rallies, and public life since 1891.