The oldest chairlift in Europe: 85 years of history on the journey up to Pustevny
Nowhere else in Europe has a chairlift been running longer than the one to the Pustevny mountain saddle, in the Moravian-Silesian Beskydy Mountains. It was put into operation on March 4th 1940.
The oldest chairlift in Europe, which has been running for eighty-five years, in the Beskydy Mountains dates from 1940. It connects Ráztok with Pustevny, and offers a unique experience. It covers the 1,637-metre journey in eleven minutes.
The ‘father’ of the chairlift was the industrialist František Wiesner, who came from Chrudim. When he saw the first chairlifts and cable cars in Canada and the United States in the 1930s, he decided that the mountains back home should have something like this. During construction in 1940, workers had to face freezing temperatures, but the construction took only two months and cost 350,000 crowns. It was put into operation on time.
One reason for the location was also that after the German occupation of country’s border areas, the Beskydy Mountains had become the only domestic mountains with a height of over a thousand metres.
The history of the chairlift was marked by several other key events. After the war, it was taken over by the Czechoslovak Municipality of Sokolská, then by Czechoslovak State Railways, and from 1958 it was operated by the Czechoslovak Sports Facilities Administration (ČSTV). A major modernisation took place in 1983–1986, when the route was extended and it was equipped with new two-seater chairs.
The original chairlift did not have the same route as the current one, and its length was just over eight hundred metres, elevated on supports made of wood. Although the route and technical equipment of the chairlift have gradually changed, its importance for the region remains the same.
The chairlift operates year-round and has transported countless tourists and skiers during its long history. If it is to serve tourists for another hundred years, a major reconstruction will be necessary. Fortunately, it has a long tradition and its importance for the region is immense.
- The chairlift route, from the lower station near Hotel Ráztoka in Trojanovice to the upper station on the Pustevny mountain saddle in the Beskydy Mountains, measures 1,637 metres.
- The Tatrapoma TS-2 single-cable chairlift offers 162 seats with a spacing of twenty meters.
- Its hourly transport capacity is nine hundred people, and the chairlift transports approximately 150,000 passengers per year.
- The chairlift overcomes an elevation of 400 metres and ends at a height of 1,018 meters above sea level.
- It can be used every half hour from 8:00 to 17:00 daily.
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Moravia-Silesia Region
A region that got rich on coal and steel. Today it attracts visitors to its industrial monuments and mountains. Birthplace of Sigmund Freud and Leoš Janáček.
