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The Žižkov Television Tower is a uniquely-designed tower built in Prague between 1985 and 1992. It stands high above the city's traditional skyline from its position on top of a hill in the district of Žižkov, from which it takes its name.
The structure of the tower is unconventional; it consists of three concrete pillars that carry cabinets for the transmitters, a restaurant and cafe, and three observation rooms. From afar, the tower resembles a rocket launchpad. The tower is 216 metres (709 feet) high, with the observation decks at 100 metres (328 feet) and the tower restaurant and cafe situated at 63 metres (207 feet) in the lower 'pods'. Elevators, equipped with speedometers, transport passengers to the different levels at a rate of 4m/s. The tower weighs 11800 tons and is also used as meteorological observatory. It is a member of the World Federation of Great Towers.
Like many examples of communist-era architecture in Central and Eastern Europe, the TV tower used to be generally resented by the local inhabitants. It also received a spate of nicknames, mostly alluding to its rocket-like shape, e.g. "Baikonur" after Soviet cosmodrome, "Pershing" after the US IRBM, some more political, like "Jakešův prst" (Jakeš's finger, after the Secretary General of the Czechoslovak Communist Party), etc. Although official criticism during the time of its construction was impossible, unofficially the tower was lambasted for its 'megalomania', its 'jarring' effect on the Prague skyline, and for destroying part of a centuries-old Jewish cemetery situated near the tower's foundations. However, the official line remains that the cemetery was moved some time before the tower was conceived. Recently, the tower's reputation among Czechs has improved. Voted #2 on the World's Ugliest Buildings list.
Rumours have also circulated that the tower was planned to be used to jam incoming western radio and television transmissions (particularly Radio Free Europe) and that it had a potential use as a communications facility for Warsaw Pact forces in the event of an attack on (or attack by) NATO.
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