Petřín Lookout Tower, Steel observation tower on Petřín Hill, Czech Republic
Petřín Lookout Tower is a steel structure with an octagonal shape on a hill in Malá Strana. The building has two observation platforms connected by 299 steps arranged in a double helix pattern.
In 1889 members of the Club of Czech Tourists visited the Paris World Exhibition and, inspired by the Eiffel Tower, founded a cooperative to build a similar tower above Prague. The Prague Bridge Factory of the Czech-Moravian Machine Factory in Libeň riveted the steel structure in four weeks, and the tower opened on 20 August 1891 for the Jubilee Provincial Exhibition.
The tower's name comes from Petřín Hill, where it stands. Since 2020 it has been managed by Prague City Tourism, and the site also holds the Mirror Maze, moved here after the 1891 Jubilee Exhibition, whose thirty-five mirrors were joined by fourteen more in the 1960s.
The tower has two observation platforms reached by 299 stairs in flights of 13, arranged as a double helix so up and down traffic pass side by side. An elevator serves elderly and disabled visitors. The Petřín funicular runs up the hill, and a gift shop and small cafeteria sit on the main level.
The tower's top was originally crowned by a glazed lantern and a St. Wenceslas crown on an iron flagpole that doubled as a lightning rod. In 1953 a television transmitter replaced the crown, and the lift was removed because cables filled the tube. FM radio broadcasting still runs from the tower.
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