Klostermannova observation tower

Javorník was admired by writer Karel Klostermann, who loved its deep forests and wild. He loved mounting the top of Javorník to be able to enjoy the great view of his beloved mountains. The bond between him and the place with a unique view was so strong, that it ended up with a wish to build an observation tower on the top of the mountain. In the beginning of the 20th century he made few of his friends from Šumava to help him - it was professor V. Zeithamer and J. Šafhauser - who had been preparing the realization of the plan with a great courage and energy. On the 26th July 1914 there was a meeting of all the friends and they discussed some last details before beginning of the construction of the wooden observation tower. The whole plan was interrupted because of mobilization. This was also the day when K. Klostermann visited his beloved place for the last time in his life. Between the wars a "Kašperohorská" group of "Národní jednota pošumavská" took care about the project and it founded a committee for the observation tower. In cooperation with a Club of Czech tourists a collection was organized and the profit was almost four thousand crowns. The original plan - to build a wooden observatory - had changed into a plan of a stone building. In May 1938 a public project competition was organized by the committee. There were three projects made but the best was by an architect from Sušice - K. Houra. On the 21st of June 1938 the building was commenced. The whole tower was built by only eight bricklayers and eight helpers (just for information - a daily wage of a bricklayer was 20 crowns and of a helper it was only 12 crowns and the total costs of the project were 90 000 crowns). In September 1938 the sudets separated, Šumava was now part of Reich and Javorník became the highest mountain in Bohemia. During the occupation it had served as a counterair observatory. After the war, it became a very popular touristic center. In the end of the 70s the pine grove began to grow over the observation part of the tower and the tower must have been closed. The idea of reopening the tower again appeared in 2001 when an endowment fund of Karel Klostermann was founded. Its main mission was to gather finances for reconstruction of this already very outworn building. This whole process was speeded up by an unexpected interest of the T-mobile company, which gave an indication of commercial use of the tower. The company has promised to finance part of the reconstruction. Also the NFKK, the village Vracov and many more smaller and bigger sponsors have offered some financial help. The reconstruction began in 2002 and the observation tower was festively reopened on the 5th July 2003 with great public interest.