Admire the view of the historical squares, picturesque red tiled roofs of Prague, the city of the hundred spires, and the easily flowing Vltava River with its many bridges and long waterfront.
The Baroque bell-tower, which also served as a fire alarm and clock tower, was built together with the St. Nicholas Church in 1739 and fully completed in 1755. The building, which replaced the earlier Gothic town bell-tower, was designed and built by the influential architect Kilián lgnác Dientzenhofer.
The height of the tower is the same as the height of the adjacent church dome – 79m, the gallery is 65m off the ground, 215 steps up. Running up the entire solid construction is a spiral staircase, mostly brick, timber-framed only in the uppermost section. In addition to the staircase and roof truss, the building also comprises several rooms, serving as the towerman’s abode and office.
Among the interesting aspects of this important monument are the singular black kitchen (the only accessible one in Prague), the Baroque sewer system and the bell of St Nicholas dating from 1576.
Starting in the 1960s, true to the then regime’s practices, the tower came to stand for something else – being a secret police observation centre, for monitoring the surrounding embassies (notably the American, German and British ones).
