Gliding in Liberec: The city of Liberec
Liberec is an important economic and cultural center in the Liberec region. You are welcome to visit this city, which is situated between the “Jestedsky” Ridge and the “Jizerske” Mountains. The history of it goes back to the time when trade routes lead through these places. Since the pass across the Jestedsky Ridge was too complicated for the tradesmen carting their merchandise, some place for rest had to be created. The city of Liberec was established as an open-market community. A small settlement with written records about it can be found from as early as 1352, had been developing successively to a small tributary town during the 15th century and the first half of the 16th century. In 1577 the Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II granted to Liberec the right to use a seal and a town crest. At the end of the 16th century, he brought an extraordinary building activity in the town. At that time the first stone buildings were built, which determined the characteristic features of the town for a long time. The new, more important changes of the town were realised in the second half of the 18th century, when the town centre was built up with brick houses in classicist forms. At the beginning of the 19th century, the textile industry started to develop in the town together with the industrial architecture construction works connected with it. A number of representative buildings were built at that time which provided the town with the kind of majesty that was adequate to its importance. Liberec used to be the second largest city in Bohemia, after Prague, which is proved among the other ways by the presence of three consulates, 50 textile factories, 60 factories concentrated on the metal industry and also by the production of RAF vehicles.
Currently Liberec offers a large number of attractions. One of the most interesting ones is for example the reconstructed castle from the turn of the 16th and the 17th centuries, which used to be the former residence of the Clam – Gallas counts, the clans of Rederns and Biebersteins. Besides the aforementioned castle, the city is proud of many remarkable buildings, e.g. the Town Hall, which was built in the neo-renaissance style and was completed in 1893, and which represents a symbol of richness and the economic and cultural development of the city. There is the “F.X. Salda” Theatre behind the Town Hall, built in 1883. The houses of the Savings Bank,
Museum and the Commercial Chamber built in 1901 – 02 form the golden core of the historical part of the city with their flamboyant appearance and the pureness of their style. Their decoration is formed with the villa quarter from the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. Their uniqueness completes the picture of the boom in the town at that time. Another interesting place besides the historical monuments is the oldest ZOO in the Czech Republic, as well as the large collection of plants in the newly reconstructed botanical garden.
Ještěd Hill with the tower.
The beautiful surroundings of the city of Liberec attract the tourists and bikers to go for trips, and in the winter period there are many interesting opportunities for cross-country skiing and downhill racers. Liberec is sometimes called the “City bellow Jested”, the peak of which towers to a height of 1.012m above sea level, and is topped with a view of a mountain hotel which became the dominant feature of the entire region. Its original structure as a rotation hyperboloid was built and designed by the Engineer-Architect Karel Hubacek, who received the prestigious Perret’s award for his design. In 1999 the building was announced as a technological monument, and gained the title of “the Building of the Century” in 2000.