Zizkov Tower, Prague
by typecat
My favourite building in Prague was the Zizkov Tower. I will come on to the architecture of Prague some other time, for there is much to discuss. Between the mass transit and the building, dear reader, I was truly in my element. We only needed a graphic design exhibit and life would have been complete.
Anyway, on with the story.
The Zizkov Tower was built between 1985 and 1992 and houses telecommunications and meteorological equipment. It is named after the hill that it stands on. Largely, I expect, due to it being built by Communists everyone thought that the Tower was built to jammed radio signals from the West and that it would used by Warsaw Pact forces in the event of a NATO attack. No one knows for sure, I guess. The Russians designed it which adds a veneer of suspicion to it. You can see the tower from the Castle and two old American gents said it was ugly because the Russians built it. It’s nice to know that some people take their old fashioned and stereotypical prejudices on holiday with them. Toothbrush yes, passport yes, bigoted ideas yes.
Crawling up the side of the tower are some very strange babies. These babies also appear outside the Kampa Museum, in the Kampa Park (I know!) by the river and are pretty unnerving up close. They have weird faces, you see. They were a temporary exhibition by David Cerny, a Czech artist in 2000. People liked them so much they asked for them back so in 2001 they were made permanent. People hated the tower when it was first built because it doesn’t really match the rest of Prague at all, and I imagine it was even more discordant in 1992, but now they insist babies crawl up it. Times really do change.
It is an example of high-tech architecture with is more commonly known as Late Modernism or Structural Expressionism, because those terms sound much more impressive and less like the description of something from a 1970s episode of Doctor Who. And who wouldn’t rather sound pompous than nerdy. Hmmm?
This slideshow requires JavaScript.
To get to the Zizkov Tower, which you must, you should take the green Metro line to Jiriho z Podebrad. Yes. Write that down. It’s a very quiet residential neighbourhood. With a great big sci-fi tower stuck in the middle of it. If I lived in Prague, I would live there. Or in the Castle.
You can go up the tower. There’s a nice old lady who can say ‘Get out at number eight’ in many different languages. She means you are to get off a floor number eight, not that you have to leave the tower at eight or wait for lift number eight. I know, who would think those stupid things? Not me that’s for sure. Shut up. The restaurant is currently closed.
Up the tower is not so exciting as outside, although I did almost burst at the excitement of seeing the tower appear over the rooftops so am not the best judge. The view is very nice although it is impossible to work out what anything is. If you are me. There are diagrams but they just don’t make any sense.
The journey in the lift is very exciting. It travels at about 4m/s, or four metres a second. The best bit of the journey is the crazy noises the lift makes. It’s like something out of that film where they get that virus on that installation in the desert. You know, the one I’ve forgotten the name of.
I am posting for your delight another of my cinematic masterpieces. This one is a talky. Well, an English talky and here is the script which took hours to write. I am playing person #1 and I am using the hash symbol as an abbreviation for the word number, not as a twitter device. I know how you kids get confused about that nowadays.
Person #1: I am ready. Go.
Person #2: OK.
Person #1: You’ve got your hand in my video.
Person #2: Oh.
Person #1: [nervous chuckle]
I think the subtext is really deep. How many of us have not been a little worried by a hand in our video? No, I thought not.
