| Smrk | |
|---|---|
| Tafelfichte | |
| Elevation | 1,124 m (3,688 ft) |
| Location | |
| Location | Czech Republic, Poland |
| Range | Jizera Mountains |
Smrk (German: Tafelfichte; Polish: Smrek) is the highest mountain in the Jizera Mountains of the Czech Republic at 1,124 m (3,688 ft). "The King of the Jizera mountains" lies south of Nové Město pod Smrkem. On the eastern rim of the plateau is the boundary with Poland, the Polish summit is 1,123 m (3,684 ft) high.
The summit offers a panoramic view to the prominent Sněžka peak of the Krkonoše range in the east, as well as to the Lusatian Highlands beyond the German border in the west up to the Boxberg Power Station.
The Tabulový kámen (Tafelstein), a stone monument, is found on the slope of Smrk. Since the Middle Ages it has formed the tripoint between the historic Upper Lusatian, Silesian and Bohemian lands of the Bohemian Crown. Between the 1742 Treaty of Breslau and the 1815 Congress of Vienna it was also the tripoint between the Electorate of Saxony, the Kingdom of Prussia and the Austrian Habsburg Monarchy.
The mountain got its name from a once mighty spruce tree that sat near landmark No. 111. After the Imperial generalissimo Albrecht von Wallenstein had been elevated to a Duke of Friedland, he nailed his coat of arms to it in 1628. This tree was uprooted, in 1790, by a storm.
On 21 August 1892, the first wooden observation tower, which was 20 m (66 ft) high, was built atop Tafelfichte. The shelter used to house the construction workers was converted, after the tower's construction, to a cottage. Until 1935, up to 18,000 people per year visited the mountain.
After World War II the local German population was expelled and the cottage was deserted and looted. The abandoned cottage fell into disrepair and the tower collapsed in the 1950s. Over the following decades forest dieback, from parasites or acid rain, has cleared the peak of the mountain to the point where it is largely bare.
After the 1989 Velvet Revolution, plans were made to build a new tower. In 2002, construction began and on September 18, 2003 another 20 m (66 ft) high tower, this time made with steel, was inaugurated. In June 2009, a replica of the 19th century wooden tower was erected at the Prague Zoo.
In 1909, a memorial stone honoring the German poet Theodor Körner was erected at the summit to commemorate his stay a hundred years before.