The repair of the fast elevator closed the Ostrava city hall tower

Ostrava - Today, the repair of the high-speed elevator leading to the information center in the town hall tower, which is a popular tourist destination, began in the building of the Ostrava New Town Hall. Due to the repairs of the elevator, which has been malfunctioning for a long time, both the observation deck and the information center will be inaccessible for about five weeks, said the town hall spokesperson Andrea Vojkovská to ČTK today.

"The last renovation of the elevator took place in 2000. Since the inspection report estimated the necessary refurbishment to eliminate safety risks at 160,000 crowns, we commissioned a public contract, the winner of which will carry out the dismantling and installation of a new elevator," the spokesperson said.

The replacement of the high-speed elevator, which took six passengers to the top in 38 seconds, will cost 1.3 million crowns. The new elevator is expected to have similar parameters. In the coming weeks, the elevator will be dismantled and replaced with a new one featuring sound accompaniment, buttons with Braille, new doors, and a control unit, the spokesperson stated.

The high-speed elevator has been operating in the town hall building since 1930, and at the time of its establishment, it had the highest destination station in the then Czechoslovak Republic. Initially, it served only significant non-Ostravian visitors and foreigners. The observation deck of the tower was opened to the public only in 1933. After 1945, the tower was again not normally accessible and only prominent city guests could go up. Regular visits to the tower were established only in 1990. Since 2002, when the town hall tower was renovated, it has been open to the public year-round.

The highest observation town hall tower in the Czech Republic is part of the New Town Hall, which is the largest town hall in the country. The observation deck of the tower at a height of 72 meters is open to the public as a lookout tower. The entire tower reaches a height of 85.6 meters. Each year, more than 40,000 visitors, nearly a quarter of whom are from abroad, admire Ostrava and its surroundings from the tower.

During the closure of the information center in the New Town Hall, people can use the services of branches at Elektra, in Nová Karolina, or at the Main Station, which are closest to the observation tower.