The tallest building in Europe is celebrating its 40th birthday

Moscow/Prague - At one time, everyone who wanted to enter the Seventh Heaven and see the Russian metropolis from a height of 330 meters had to undergo a personal inspection and provide their full name and address. This restaurant, currently closed to the public, is still aptly named after it and is located on the Ostankino television tower in Moscow. This tallest structure in Europe and the fourth tallest in the world was opened forty years ago on November 5, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution.
For nine years, this pride of the Soviet regime, standing at 540 meters, was the tallest building in the world, until it was overtaken by the CN Tower in Toronto, Canada, by 13 meters. The foundations for the construction of the Ostankino needle, as the tower is nicknamed, began in August 1960. However, in the following year, the government halted construction due to concerns that the given foundations would not support such a tall tower. Construction resumed in April 1963 under the direction of Nikolai Nikitin.
In November 1967, four television and three radio channels began broadcasting from the tower with a range of 120 km. Construction continued until December 1968, when the tower was opened to the public and the Uragan transmitter began transmitting colored television signals, among other things. In the following years, new transmitters were gradually installed (today the tower broadcasts 19 television and 15 radio programs), a meteorological station was established, and several observation platforms (with partially glass floors) were created. Several high-speed elevators, manufactured in Germany, transported visitors to the revolving restaurant Seventh Heaven.
However, until the fateful year of 2000, no major repairs had been carried out on the unique structure, which had been visited by over 12 million people by then. On August 27, 2000, a fire broke out in one of the technical departments at a height of 475 meters, which claimed three lives and significantly damaged the Moscow landmark. Of the 149 steel cables that maintained the tower's stability, only twenty remained intact after the fire. For three days, the residents of Moscow and the surrounding area were without a television signal, and the tower has been closed to the public ever since. Chechen rebels claimed responsibility for the fire, but it was ultimately determined to have been caused by an electrical short circuit.
Since 2004, there have been reports that the tower, with its dozens of circular platforms and balconies, will soon be opened to the public again. According to a statement from the tower's management this year, which is run by a branch of the state Russian Television and Radio Network (RTRS), this is expected to happen this fall. The reconstruction and modernization of the Ostankino Tower after the fire in 2000 cost approximately 1.5 billion rubles (about 1.134 billion crowns).
Worldwide, the tallest television transmission mast rises to the sky at 629 meters in North Dakota, USA. An even taller radio mast stood in the town of Gombin, near Warsaw, which measured 16 meters more but collapsed in August 1991. The tallest building in the world (586 meters) is the under-construction Burj Dubai in the capital of the United Arab Emirates, which, when completed in about a year, should exceed 800 meters including its antenna.
Moscow is also home to two of the tallest buildings in Europe - the 59-story Naberezhnaya Tower in the Moscow-City international business center, which surpassed the residential building Vostochniy Palace by four meters this year, standing at 268 meters. In the Czech Republic, the tallest building is in Prague at Pankrác (109 meters), while the tallest structure is the transmitter near Český Brod (355 meters). The tallest structure in the Czech Republic that tourists can ascend is the tower in Žižkov, Prague (216 meters).