STYLE

The Czech Hiking Club’s Petr Bezruč Chalet

on Lysá Hora in the Moravian-Silesian

Beskyd Montains

People who visit the Moravian-Silesian Region and have time to visit the Beskyd Mountains, should

try to visit Lysá hora, the highest peak of the range. The number of visitors (more than 300,000 per

year) far exceeds the capacities of this peak. Until recently, there was a lack of facilities to support

so many people.

In the first half of this decade, two

organizations invested in new buildings

on Lysá Hora. AK 1342 erected the chalet

Marathon while the Petr Bezruč Chalet was

built by the Czech Hiking Club (KČT). Since

the end of 2016, both chalets have provided

a full range of food and accommodation

services at the top of the mountain.

Although it only took the Club of

Czechoslovak Hikers (KČST) a couple

of years to go from the decision in the

autumn of 1932 to build the chalet to its

official opening ceremony on 16 June 1935,

the efforts of the re-established Czech

Hiking Club to rebuild the chalet took an

unbelievable twenty-five years (1990-2015)!

The external shape of the new chalet is a

replica of the original KČST chalet. This

solution was supported by the Association

of Architects, as architect Ing. František

Knobloch’s original 1930s design is

considered to be the most successful

attempt at designing a modern Czech

mountain chalet. A comparatively small

accommodation capacity was approved

for the chalet. It is equipped with a modern

kitchen, a large modern dining room and

a tap-room (jokingly named “Knajpa”,

which means dive bar), the design of which

is reminiscent of the previous feeding station

“Šantán”, which belonged to the original

KČST chalet and in 1978, unlike the original

chalet, it did not burn down. The chalet

has its own source of drinking water and is

also connected to the water source of the

Czech Radiocommunications centre, which

supplies other buildings on the top of the

mountain. In addition to a large drinking

water tank, it has another smaller rain tank

(utility water from the roof), meaning the

chalet has a double water supply; , with clean

water for drinking and utility water which

is used in the washrooms and toilets. The

chalet is warmed using a heat pump, which

draws energy

from five deep hydroelectric wells drilled

into the mountain. The chalet is designed

to maintain a passive, relaxing atmosphere.

The outer layering is perfectly insulated; all

windows have triple glazing with thermal

glass. Inside, heat exchangers have been

installed at every air vent from the living room

and the kitchen to heat up air on intake. Solar

panels have been situated on the railing of

the terrace in front of the chalet, which

partly covers the power consumption

necessary for the heat pump. The corridor

on the first floor of the building, which

does not have direct illumination from the

windows, is illuminated by skylights. Two

terraces located in front of the main facade

protrude over the slopes of the Šance

water reservoir on the Ostravice river and

offer a beautiful view of the large part of

the Beskyd Mountains and of a Slovak

mountains beyond. Thanks to its technical

and spatial solutions, the chalet has become

one of the most advanced buildings of

its kind in our country.

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