Velký Blaník lookout tower

There is a wooden lookout tower on the mythical Velký Blaník mountain near Louňovice. This place is located about 8 km south of Vlašim and about 25 km southeast of Benešov.

The lookout tower is built at an altitude of 638 meters and its total height is 28.4 meters. A total of 112 steps lead to the viewing platform and from there there is a view of Bohemian Siberia, the Central Bohemian Uplands, Vlašim, Posázaví and the Bohemian-Moravian Highlands. If the weather wishes, you can see Prague or the peaks of Šumava.

Opening hours depend on the season. In March and October you can get here on weekends between 10 am and 4 pm. From April to September 30, the lookout tower can be visited daily except Mondays from 10 am to 5 pm.

The easiest way to get to the lookout tower is by car from Louňovice to Načeradec. When you reach the beginning of the forest, just leave your car parked in the parking lot below Blaník and walk up the red tourist sign. The road is about 1 km long from the parking lot.

Velký Blaník is an indisputable dominant feature of the entire Vlašim region. The mythical mountain was once inhabited by the Celts and at the end of the 19th century people's camps were held here. One of the cornerstones of the National Theater comes from Mount Blaník.

The strategic location directly encourages the construction of a lookout tower, which was first used by the Prague Cardinal Schönborn in 1895. The lookout tower was 20 meters high, wooden and open, with a triangle structure. They went up the ladders. At the beginning of the 1930s, this lookout tower was already quite rotten and a year later it even collapsed.

Shortly afterwards, in 1936, Archbishop František Kašpar made a request for the construction of a new view, which would also include the chapel of St. Wenceslas Square, which would be used during the St. Wenceslas pilgrimages.

The construction of the new lookout tower took place between 1940 and 1941 on the initiative of the Czech Tourists Club. The construction was commissioned by Müller z Vlašimi and the project by Ing. Alexandr Hanuš. An almost 30 meter high tower similar to the Hussite voice, covered with shingles and a smaller chapel in the form of a shelter was built.

Accession took place in June 1941, but after two months it was closed again until 1944.
In 1949, the lookout tower was nationalized and during the following years no one maintained it, so it fell into disrepair. Another reconstruction took place in 1976-77. At present, the lookout tower is the property of the municipality.

Author: Andrea Štyndlová