Black Tower

The Black Tower is a seventy-two-metre Renaissance belfry beside the cathedral, a symbol of Budějovice and its best viewpoint: from the gallery at forty-six metres you look down on the square of the main square from above. The town built it mainly to show off — and until the mid-20th century someone still lived in it.

Jan Vančura, who has run the tower for over thirty years, puts it like this: “The town may not have needed so tall a tower, but it wanted to prove to the Bohemian Kingdom that České Budějovice was a prestigious city.” It cost roughly as much as fifteen of the best houses on the square would have cost then. And until 1950 a tower keeper lived in the rooms up by the gallery and watched the town for fires.

You climb a narrow stair past the bells, among them Bummerin, which weighs three and a half tonnes. From the gallery in good visibility you can see Kleť, Hluboká and Temelín. It is open from April to October.

Where the name really comes from (and where it doesn’t)

Tradition links the tower’s name to the great fire of České Budějovice in 1641 (see the Great Fire section above). Reality is less dramatic and more interesting: the label “Black Tower” only appears around 1890, when the last painted plaster fell away in the 19th century and the stone blackened — most likely from air pollution as industry and coal burning grew. So more than 200 years after the fire, the tower earned its name not from flames but from chimney smoke.

The tower keeper and fire watch

A tower keeper lived in the tower, charged with watching the town and countryside. Until the tower had a telephone link to the fire station, he had to report suspicious fire or smoke by striking a bell, by day hanging a red flag and by night a red lantern. Over centuries of service the keepers spotted and reported dozens of fires in the town and around it.

The bells

Six bells hang inside the tower. The largest, Bummerin (3.5 tonnes, 182 cm diameter), dates from 1723, cast by Sylvius Kreuz, and was meant to protect the town from lightning, flood and war — it took its name from its deep, booming tone (also nicknamed Pumerin). Its predecessor has a story worth telling: the 1507 bell by Budějovice founder Mikuláš originally belonged to the town of Rudolfov. In a dispute between Rudolfov miners and Budějovice, furious miners buried it in the ground for years — until a pig dug it up on “Pig Meadow” near Lišov. A swineherd had it excavated and gave it to his town, but it was too heavy for Lišov’s tower, so the councillors eventually sold it back to Budějovice. The youngest bell, Budvar (1.1 tonnes), is from 1995 — a name exactly as you would expect from a Budějovice bell. The others are Marta, Octava, Maria and the Silver Bell of 1630.

Facts about the building

Built 1549–1577 as a belfry, guard and watchtower beside the church (today’s cathedral) of St Nicholas. The lower floors have Gothic elements, but the whole is Renaissance. Height 72.29 m, viewing platform at 46 m, 225 steps up — the same count as the town-hall tower on the square.

On site

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