Czechia's Incredible 1960s Supervillain-Lair Hotel (And Why Its Architect Got Banned) 

How droll.

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👍 😅

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Don't tell anyone, but this is actually how we got there :) Took 2 hours

Or, 1,5 hour from prague by bus and only 5quid including free coffee

​@@TheTimTraveller wait, you were in Dresden and didn't tell anybody? We could have had a meetup. I would have loved to meet you.

Love Dresden.

I might get into trouble for revealing this great local secret. If you want to reach ANY interesting destination in eastern Germany, Poland, or the Czech Republic - simply go to Dresden by fast train (ICE) and then continue on a local train or bus. By some weird thing called geography this city is connected to almost everything in those areas. 😉

Ah brilliant - this is exactly the kind of extra inside knowledge I was hoping for. Thank you very much for taking the time to comment!

Interesting to read this from a Czech, as I've heard this bit: "And even more sadly, many of the architectonic gems of the socialist era (40 years, not a short period of time) were demolished or rebuilt in a terrible way in the last decades, as many people cannot really dissociate the political stuff they didnt like from the architecture that had its qualities." before, but then from friends of mine who were born in the GDR (East-Germany). I guess it's a more common complaint amongst people from former "Eastern Bloc" countries

The art budget thing is still a thing in Sweden to this day! It's not an actual law, but rather a long standing tradition of sorts (I believe dating back to the 1930's) that most publicly funded construction projects use even today - one percent of the construction budget should be dedicated to art. Similar principles seem to exist in other countries as well.

The amount of political influence on art and related fields like architecture varied widely over time, at least in East Germany. And often, political and economical factors were connected. Singular and exceptional buildings (like the Jested hotel) may have gotten away with more freedom, but when it comes to functional mass architecture, the official line definitely had major effects on what and how apartment blocks, government buildings, and things like that were constructed.

@@varana correct, same in the USSR. Brutalism was the standard, not because it was artistically appealing to the regime or architects but because mass production "proletarian" construction was both politically expedient AND cheap.

It’s actually not so dissimilar to what occurred in Brazil under their most ruthless, murderous dictatorship: Eager to fulfill the promise of becoming the world’s third superpower (as many people believed, pre-dictatorship, Brazil had been destined to become), the same thugs who murdered journalists and dissidents and labor leaders and scores of ordinary citizens approved all sorts of utopian architecture - even a whole planned city built around modernist principles - as a way of telling the world, “Hey, don’t believe what your lying eyes and ears are telling you … we’re the good guys! Look at all our swoop-y buildings!” It’s also worth noting that dictatorships don’t seek citizen input or follow zoning commission recommendations or take democratic votes or even conduct cost/benefit analyses of their big bombastic projects: the dictator just gets an idea stuck in their head, murders whoever stands opposed to it, executes the idea (no pun intended), and if the costs run over budget (as they often do, when every contractor is a friend or a cousin of the dictator’s), well, you just rob a little more from the poor. Latin America is riddled with quite interesting, extravagant buildings from the decades in which the U.S.A. and the C.I.A.-run School of the Americas were fomenting coups and then installing murderous but U.S.-friendly dictators in every other country … and those buildings are often surrounded by favelas, and built - literally - over the bones of the _desaparecidos._ Or heck, look at what the ruthless monarchies of Saudi Arabia and the U.A.E. are doing today … with slave labor, and displacing nomadic encampments, while murdering a few protesters and then “disappearing” them: building spectacular, extravagant, bottomless money-sinks! Different time and region, same tune. That said, these landmarks _are_ quite often very beautiful - even brilliant - architecturally and functionally. But as o.p. wrote above, they were often built as p.r. exercises, and it’s pretty easy to build anything if you don’t have to ask anyone’s permission … and if you have the state’s coffers - and perhaps even a patron superpower - propping up your ambitions, then your budget is almost unlimited. Heck - if you got the population’s permission first, and it benefited them, and you didn’t murder anyone along the way, building stuff like this could even be … noble! 🤷‍♂️

@@danopticon ​ Your last sentence there is what I think is particularly interesting about Ještěd. As you've both pointed out, it's not exactly unusual for governments (communist or otherwise!) to build ostentatious projects and foist them on the public. What makes Ještěd unusual compared to other grand projects of the communist era - and this is the more nuanced point I was trying to make in the video - is that it had popular support from the public, and only grudging support from the government. While it's possible that Novotný genuinely liked it, I'm pretty sure Husák didn't.

Let's not forget a motorway bridge from hill to hill high above the rooftops of a quaint little neighbourhood of Prague. Honestly, garish urban motorway projects could be found all across the world though, particularly in the very much not-communist US. Those ideas of casting a better future into brick and concrete was also highly popular among social-democrats in the 1920s and 30s, even to the point of using a new style of homes to create a new, better citizen.

@@TheTimTraveller it must be said that during the era, many people earnestly believed in this brighter communist future. It was only later on that disillusionment came and the authoritarianism truly set in. Czechoslovakia was never as ruthless a dictatorship as Brazil, but political freedoms were eroded through the 50s and 60s (post 1948 revolution) and by the time people started to realise what was happening, the invasion happened.

@@shitlordflytrap1078 Thank you for the insight, Shitlord Flytrap!

Well it basically is, right? :P

Your what?

@@FrietjeOorlog Obviously they are British!

@@MRSCARNIVAL who?

@@proof036 Someone who says your when they mean you are or you're!!! So British!

Google "Buzludzha Monument" - he should deffo do this

If you go to Atlas Obscura you find a lot of these oddball locations.

What's bizarre about my birthplace? :-)

You English should stop calling everyting that doesn't conform to your local parochial views "crazy" and "bizarre", it won't bring you any friends. You didn't like the beginning of the previous sentence, did you? Well, thats a little taste of how it feels.

@@CzechMirco Firstly, I'm not English, I'm Irish. Secondly, a needle-shaped hotel built on the summit of a mountain *is* bizarre. Are there any other such hotels in the world? Thirdly, calling something bizarre is not even an insult, if anything it's a compliment. If I had parochial views I wouldn't be subscribed to Tim's channel.

Thank you! It's a similar story for me - when I found out about Jested last year, I couldn't believe I'd never seen it before. (And btw, there's a happy ending: Hubacek was eventually recognised after the fall of communism, with a Czech Medal of Merit, and honourary citzenship of both Prague and Liberec.)

Same story for me, I only discovered it by total chance when travelling in Czech republic. It is trully a "hidden" gem

@@TheTimTraveller just think how much more are you not aware of under your western "fog of war"?!!?!? and your "naive" interpretations of communism is just repetition of 50 years old western propaganda, even Goebbels would be amazed, Communism is based on worker participation and corruption is part of it as any human endeavor. May I remind you of murders in England on Queen property that are not even investigated by police, why dont you explain that to us or how in England you cant dig under old schools or orphanages as they are literally full of bodies you had to outlaw it from being investigated!?!?!!? please do and then we can talk about some wasted concrete by communists. Charles Dickens wrote about England, we had Kafka and Process and Transformation as our subjects whilst capitalists abused kids so drop the attitude Tim

There is another such gem nearby in Dresden (east Germany): the "Rundkino" (eng: round cinema) - one of the first public buildings built with industrial techniques - the same technique that is used to build those large round cooling towers at power plants. Originally it was the visual center point of Prager Strasse in Dresden, but today it is unfortunately hidden behind some other buildings. It is relatively well known by expats in Dresden, because it is the only place that shows almost all movies in English as well as German. Ohh, and there is the modern Kristallpalast cinema right next to the Rundkino of which the owners are awfully proud. But it only rarely shows movies in English, so it doesn't count. Prager Strasse in Dresden is worth some research if you are into 20th century architecture and city planning.

@@rcajavus8141 What on earth are you wibbling about?

Unfortunately the new cable car wont retain its original design

@@L4wr3nc3810 It is unfortunate but getting modern safety on the old cable car system would be pretty much impossible and designing new system that looks like the old one would be super expensive. It is much more affordable to buy standardized setup from someone like Poma or CWA with proven reliability, maintenance and spare parts.

What was the catastrophic failure, was it like in Stresa-Mottarone?

@@el_dani Very similar. Haulage cable snapped. These cabins had only manual safety. The cabin with 13 passengers and conductor stopped after he pulled the emergency brake. No physical injuries. Unfortunately the second cabin with only the conductor crashed and he did not survive. I think it is still under investigation but preliminary results stated that the brakes worked but were not activated. He may be knocked over by the sudden acceleration and unable to pull the emergency brake in time. It was fairly old system built in 1975 and did not receive modernization that would add automatic safeties that are present on modern cable cars.

Exactly same situation as in Italy, where emergency brakes were disabled (stupid technician said he would not disable brakes if he knew cable can snap - thats why there is emergency brake in first place). Manual emergency brake is another "good idea", on video from Italy everyone can see the impact on the cabin, when cable snapped - everybody was lying on the floor after impact. It just luck that cabin with more people was able to be stopped, only few meters before crashing into station. That is why new cable car will be built in 3 years, with higher capacity. Old gondola with just two cabins have very limited capacity per hour. People were waiting up to 1 hours for the old cable car.

Some haters will tell you that it's all post-editing for the video, but deep down we all know the truth

he is an EXTREMLY accomplished mountain climber

I mean he singlehandedly climbed the highest mountains of quite a lot of countries. Belgium and Denmark only to name a few. So I guess you could say climbing is his thing.

​@@captainevenslower4400 let's not forget the Netherlands!

And what's climbing in the Czech Republic without Adam Ondra? Crossover missed.

I stayed there for one night in August 2019

Down your drink each time the Grand Design person has to increase / exceed their budget

@@SportyMabambaAre you trying to turn me into an alcoholic?

@@CX103 come on in the booze is lovely _hic_ 🥴

Drink when Kevin is worried that there won't be enough light in some of the rooms!

Thank you so much for posting. I was trying to find what it was. I would've never found it since I don't even know the show. At first listen, I thought it was Mad World by Gary Jules, probably because of the Cm -> F progression (Fm -> Bb in Mad World). I went back to listen to Mad World to confirm my misidentification and it was immediately obvious that I was wrong. "But what the heck is it then", I asked. The closest thing I was able to find before reverting back to this comment section was Nice Day by Persephone's Bees, which was still quite far from the correct tune, but not an unfortunate step in the wrong path.

Well done you, you recognised a famous tune from the TV. Do you need a medal?

@@frontenac5083 I'll give them one.

Aha, thank you! I was racking my brain trying to remember where I'd heard that theme before; it's been a few years since I last saw Grand Designs UK.

I also liked the use of Summer Holiday by Cliff Richard when showing the hotels the Czech go on holiday to.

Also the piano version of a Firestarter when talking about the old hotel was brilliant.

And the Hotel Arbez! But it's been a while :)

Hah! Fancy seeing you here :D !חג פסח שמח

@@TheTimTraveller Now that you're branching into hotel reviews, have you considered making videos about different sports too?

@@TheTimTraveller I shared Hotel Arbez with my family just yesterday! So it hasn't been that long for me, ha!

​@@seanolaocha940 oh, no no no no no

It's not quite on par with Shakespeare's sonnets, but it'll do for youtube.

Proper pedantry for this channel, cheers!

I'm happy to see I wasn't the only one who knew this stupid bit of Olympic history. I created a character in an RPG session once who was a disgruntled silver medalist in architecture, and was determined to bring home the gold.

​@@imightbebiased9311 and did he win?

This is why I read the comments and watch the vids again as always there are Easter eggs I missed first time :)

wow completely missed that. What an amazing easter egg

I can't get enough of their rendition of the BBC Panaroma themetune.

Jane Lucemburský, jste to vy!?

Your Dad sounds hilarious - my kind of guy. . .

Such a dad thing to do!!

Are you referring to the Sedlec Ossuary in Kutná Hora?

@@Darwinek Yes!

@@SignalStealer Yes, those are the bones of thousands of people who died during the plague, and those killed by the Hussites, the medieval Protestant version of ISIS.

Thanks for the translation. I was wondering what the joke was there.

He killed 16 Czechoslovakians, he was an interior decorator.

This!

I hope he sees this. Leaving a comment to make this going up in relevance

Love Czechia from France 🇫🇷❤️🇨🇿

@@albevanhanoy Love both Czechia and France from the one in-between, Germany. ;-)

Hi - great point, and this is one of the reasons why I started that part of the video with a warning that I was generalising and simplifying things :) I suspect you are right that the people visiting this hotel in the 70s would have been more privileged than the average person. But to be fair, I think even the privileged people would have been surprised when they saw this place for the first time...

@@TheTimTraveller In case of Jested... it is true that common people didn't stay at the hotel, but we used to visit Jested basically each time we stayed near Liberec, so we definitely had a chance to admire it. ;-)

@ haha I bet! Were you able to go inside as well, or were you just admiring from the outside?

The overwhelming majority of people who lived under communism loved communism, wanted to conserve communism, and even want communism back today (the few who are still alive). Unfortunately, only anti-communists are ever given a voice by the propaganda regimes that took over after the illegal and anti-democratic dissolution of the USSR. Most people who lived "under the regime" also understand that practically all problems of "the regime" were caused by foreign fascist aggression. The only people in former socialist countries who oppose socialism are either young people who never lived under communism and are affected by Western capitalist propaganda lies... or old people who were part of the bourgeoisie before socialism (or are naive enough to hope they will become part of the bourgeoisie after socialism in case they act as collaborators of the West). That's also why fascists like the Nazis and Americans did everything in their power to restrict socialist countries' ability to trade and develop peacefully. Socialism - if left unchecked - will always outcompete capitalism. The world is slowly waking up to the fact that the anti-democratic capitalist West is at fault for most of the world's ills and that socialism was always the superior system. That's why the US is doubling down on its propaganda and wars and even intends to start a World War against China. I doubt the fascists will win another time. Everyone outside the West realizes that Western systems are monumental failures and that capitalism (particularly in the form of US imperialism) is a disease and that China's highly democratic and progressive and - most importantly - peaceful model is far better suited to develop human society.

@@TheTimTraveller I believe the restaurant was open to public, as long as it was usable. Which wasn't always the case. 😀

Why? Ther are flights to prague from almost everywhere and You can take a train to Liberec or Bus... You can even go from Wrocław in Poland

​@@qzg7857 Because I'm Argentinian and we poor. When I do get to travel to another continent I never have time for visiting every side-b attraction there is. I might be able to do that here in South America... but we don't have as many quaint places, the countries are bigger, the population is lower, the cities aren't as old. So that's why I love Tim showing me things I find cute or interesting, but I wouldn't get to meet unless I move there, or have enough money to travel there often.

@@lionellerner Just adding that us, the United Tim Fans of Latin America, are looking forward to have Tim exploring the region

@@tavela very much so! we can even point him to the most Tim places

More than minor key...the Bond Chord progression!

They still are. But they are also still as rare.

There is plenty of cool architecture going on. But it isn't everywhere. Projects like this are rare in any case, but once something is built, it takes a lot of time to replace it if functional. Europe and the wider world are full of ancient cities that maintained functionality of buildings for centuries. Eventually the worth of a building is based on functionality.

Not sure I want to live in a world of 1960s and 70s architecture

@@jaredbowhay-pringle1460 as long as it's over the top spacey stuff and not brutalism, sign me right up.

London's got some great spacey buildings --- the Glass Gherkin and the Walkie Talkie (which was briefly famous for melting cars parked nearby) are worth a look. The Shard is okay too, but less interesting; it is pleasingly reminiscent of the Combine Citadel from Half-Life.

I thought it was the tune from grand designes

Mission Impossible is also in there somewhere

Or Discworld

Or a hotel so I can take a nap when I reach the top :)

How dare you imply that those hills in the Netherlands and Denmark weren't "actual" mountains?

and the grand design theme at the end!

i was wondering why it seems so familiar

@@as-tm7np - He does it in many videos and picking them out is always good for a giggle. The ones that pop to mind are "Going Underground" by The Jam in the Paris Underground videos. "The Riverboat Song" and "The Day We Caught the Train" by Ocean Colour Scene - in the ones about the riverboat and - too many train videos to be sure which one.

@@AnyoneCanSee I actually meant about the Hexagon, but I've also noticed his music choices. Often very frustrating when I can't place the tune - I'm sure if I wasn't British most of the references would go right over my head

what about the Fawlty Towers theme when talking about the .. faulty tower (wobbling in the wind)

Tatra T3. Czech-made, produced since early 60s and widely used all over the eastern bloc.

The Tatra T3 tram, produced in Smíchov, Prague. About 15000 of them were produced, which is the most of any tram type in the world. The production started in 1962, and modernized versions of this tram are still in service in many cities, including Prague and Liberec.

Thank you for your insights :)

Haha thank you! Making this video took me nearly a month and almost drove me mad, so I can't do it every time, but it's nice to hear it was worth it on this occasion :)

''anough''?

@@firesurfer fixed, I hate dysgraphia, I can't see my mistakes very often XD

And such tall places!

1 bonus internet point for using accent marks in a comment, and minus 1 internet point for using accent marks in English. (accent marks are lost when using English). No exemption for proper nouns. :)

Well done you, you recognised a famous tune from the TV. Do you need a medal?

For a native English speaker, the pronunciation was quite impressive.

I'm also Slovak and have never heard of the Jested hotel until I met my girlfriend (now wife) who's from Liberec. Well, fast forward 7 years later and now I live near Liberec and ride my bike to the top of the Jested mountain at least 3 times a year and ski there several days every winter 😃

I think it's the only one in Czechia, right? The only thing I can think of that may come close inside Czechia is the tram line from Brno to Modřice, where Modřice proudly remain a separate small town (which I think continues to catch some people unawares, when it comes to ticket tariffs 😂).

@@beth12svist Yeah, I guess it is the only one where both places have similar importance. But Ostrava actually beats Brno with their line from Poruba to Budišovice :D

@@Failrue Ah, I'm not familiar with Ostrava. I think I did have a vague feeling there was something like that there, too, though - I think I saw a video years ago and it kind of stuck in the back of my head. :-)

@@beth12svist There's also one between Most and Litvínov

Also, i checked Google Maps, they claim it is a one hour walk spanning almost 500 meter in height from the tram stop.

Thank you :) One hour is about right in summer, but in my experience, it takes a little longer in winter conditions, and longer still if you're stopping every five minutes to get a shot for a montage :)

@@TheTimTraveller you could use a ski lift to go to the top and than walk along the ridge. Honestly, I admire your courage going along the road to the top. Luckily, as it is now being repaired from the other side, the traffic is very low.

@@TheTimTraveller I'm going to remember this... Next time I'm puffing up a hill in an unfit state, I'm going to tell my wife that I'm "getting a shot for the montage".

It's not that high of a mountain.

you sure did

On this channel, pretty much any bit of music references _something._ About half of the time it's some British TV show but here we also got the James Bond theme, as well as _Firestarter_ by The Prodigy.

@@hugobouma there was also Summer Holiday and I'd llove to know what the choon was at 6:45