The foundation sells stairs to the sloped Ústí church

Ústí nad Labem - The Ústí Community Foundation is looking for 15 donors who would buy a step into one of the steepest towers in Europe, which is part of the Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary in Ústí nad Labem. The price of the step is 25,000 crowns. So far, 29 donors have purchased a step. Among them is, for example, the former mayor of the city, Petr Gandalovič. The proceeds from the sale will be used by the foundation to cover costs associated with the preparation of a project for an extension that is intended to restore access to the tower. This was announced today in a press release by the foundation’s director, Kateřina Valešová.

The sixty-meter tower deviated from the vertical by more than two meters during bombing at the end of World War II and has been inaccessible to the public since then. After being hit by an aerial bomb, it tilted and cracked. The original entrance to the tower was demolished, and the leaning tower has become one of the symbols of the North Bohemian city. The Ústí Community Foundation has been striving for its reopening to the public since 2015.

During the bombing, the original stairwell extension, which was used to access the tower, fell and was not rebuilt. Today, it is only possible to access the tower via a precarious route through the attic of the church nave. The tower's reconstruction was designed in 1899 by architect Josef Mocker, the author of the reconstruction of Karlštejn. After the bombing, the construction was statically secured by engineer Bedřich Hacar, who, for example, designed the completion of the damaged monastery in Prague's Emauzy.

After the repair, access to the Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary tower is to be provided by an extension designed by the architectural workshop of Martin Rajniš.

The latest proposed architectural solution, which is already the fourth in order, has received no objections from either heritage conservationists or firefighters. Firefighters made safety requirements. Heritage conservationists insisted that the new building should not compete with the monument. There is agreement on both the interior modifications of the tower and the appearance of the exterior modern extension. However, the exterior extension will have to wait for the approval of a new zoning plan, to which the foundation submitted a proposal in 2018.