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Děčínský Sněžník Lookout Tower

The lookout tower on Děčínský Sněžník is an excellent tip for a trip not only for lovers of history and nature, but for all those who just want to take a nice walk and see the world from a height!

Information for visitors

Adress: Jílové 1, Jílové
GPS: 50.79339000, 14.10852300
Děčínský Sněžník Lookout Tower map

Interesting facts Děčínský Sněžník Lookout Tower

This stone lookout tower with a total height of 33 meters has stood on the Děčínský Sněžník table mountain since 1864. It is located at an altitude of 723 meters, approximately 10 km northwest of Děčín.

A total of 173 steps lead to the observation deck, of which 38 steps just before the top are made of cast iron. From a height of 31 meters you will have a magical view of the Czech Central Mountains, Bezděz, the Ore Mountains, the Lusatian Mountains, Říp, Ještěd and the Giant Mountains.

A red marked hiking trail leads directly from Děčín to the lookout tower.


You can get here by car from Jílové via serpentines and Sněžník to the crossroads below Děčínský Sněžník. There is also a car park and from there you have to continue on foot for about 1.5 km, because for the next trip there is a ban on entry for all motor vehicles.

In the season from April to the end of October, the lookout tower is open every day from 10 am to 5 pm, and on weekends and holidays you can get here from 9 am. From November to the end of March, opening hours depend on climatic conditions. However, if they are favorable, it is also open daily, from 11 am to 5 pm, and on weekends and holidays you can get here from 10 am. The key to the lookout tower can be picked up at a nearby buffet.

The Děčínský Sněžník lookout tower is truly original. Its shape perfectly resembles a chess piece of a tower. At present, the tower functions as a tourist lookout tower and antenna carrier at the same time, but it was originally built for a completely different purpose. It was originally intended to serve surveyors. In 1862, the cartographic office in Vienna asked Count Thun, the then owner of the estate, either to cut down a forest at the top of Sněžník or to have a wooden triangulation tower built there.


Count Thun decided to build a triangulation tower here, but not exactly a wooden one. The construction of the magnificent stone tower began in 1863. The tower was built not only for practical use, but also with a high aesthetic effect. It was decorated in a neo-Gothic style, with battlements and angled window arches. The construction was completed in 1864.
For its original purposes, however, the tower was used only briefly, specifically until 1866, when the Prussian-Austrian war broke out.


The lookout tower was used and visited by tourists so abundantly that a year after its completion, a cottage with refreshments was built near it. The first capture of the signal of a Berlin television station in our territory in 1936 is also connected to the tower.


Sněžník did not lose its glanc even after the Second World War. In 1985, the lookout tower was registered in the monument fund of the State Monument Care. Despite these facts, the vandals signed the state of the lookout tower. The side cottage even had to be demolished due to its poor technical condition, and the lookout tower was closed for some time.
A major overhaul awaited the lookout tower in 1992. After that, antennas and transmitters were also placed on it and reopened to tourists.


At the turn of the century, the restaurant and buffet near the lookout tower were restored. In 2011, the Děčínský Sněžník lookout tower became the most popular lookout tower in the Ústí nad Labem Region in an idnes.cz readers' survey.

Author: Andrea Štyndlová