Biskupská kupa, Mountain summit at Czech-Polish border.
Biskupská kupa is a forested summit on the Czech-Polish border, 890 meters high, with its highest point on the Czech side. An 18-meter stone observation tower built in 1898 stands at the top, and the summit rises above the village of Zlaté Hory and the surrounding fields.
The mountain marked the border between the bishoprics of Olomouc and Wrocław from 1229, later separating Habsburg and Hohenzollern lands after the Silesian Wars. A wooden lookout tower named after Emperor Franz Joseph I was erected in 1898 by the Moravian-Silesian Sudeten Mountain Society's Prudnik branch. The first tourist lodge, Rudolfsheim, had opened in 1893 south of the summit.
The name likely comes from the mountain's shape, resembling a bishop's mitre, or from the 1474 grant of surrounding lands to the bishopric by Hungarian king Matthias Corvinus. The Polish form Biskupia Kopa was recorded by Józef Lompa in 1847 and made official in 1949; the variant Kopa Biskupia is incorrect.
The observation tower opens to visitors from May through October with access providing views of both Czech and Polish territories. The path to the summit requires moderate physical fitness, and climbing the tower's interior stairs is necessary to reach the top viewing platform.
The viewing terrace's parapet carries several arrows pointing to landmarks in the panorama, among them the nearby Zlatý chlum lookout and the ridges of the Hrubý Jeseník with Praděd. The tower itself is the oldest in the Jeseníky range.
The community of curious travelers
AroundUs brings together thousands of curated places, local tips, and hidden gems, enriched daily by 92,787 contributors worldwide.
