Czechia · CZ

Val

The Val Lookout Tower (Rozhledna Val) is a slender steel observation deck on the 788-metre hill of Val, about three kilometres east of the small East Bohemian town of Králíky. Built in 2002 as a mobile-phone transmitter and opened to visitors the following year, it gives the public a free, year-round climb to a 22-metre platform with one of the broadest 360-degree panoramas in this corner of the Czech Republic. From the top you sweep across the Králický Sněžník massif—the third-highest range in the country—the Jeseníky peaks, the Orlické hory, the rounded uplands of the Hanušovice Highlands and, close at hand, the baroque pilgrimage monastery crowning Hora Matky Boží above the town. It is a compact, easy outing that rewards a short climb with a genuinely big view.