Day 1#

Tower Háj near city Aš

The granite lookout tower offers breathtaking views of the surroundings. You can see the town of Aš and the nearby and more distant surroundings. What visitors can see is revealed by the copper plates in the eight highest windows of the tower. You can see not only the Green Mountain near Cheb, 20 kilometres away, but also Špičák in Sumava, seventy kilometres away, and Klínovec in the Ore Mountains, six kilometres away. The nearby Wartberg or Kornberg mountains, and even the highest mountain in the Saxon part of the Ore Mountains, the Fichtelberg, can be seen without any problems. The unmissable lookout tower rises to a height of 34 metres above the Háj peak at an altitude of 758 metres.

The first visitors climbed the 122 steps in late 1903, and the magnificent structure was inaugurated on 19 June the following year. The project, which won a prestigious prize at the Dresden Art Exhibition in 1901, was designed by the Dresden architect Wilhelm Kreis. An impressive amount of 66 cubic metres of granite blocks, about 65,000 bricks and nearly 60 wagons of lime were used for the construction. The craftsmen completed the construction of the monumental tower in a record time of 13 months.

The view from the top of Háj Hill On the top floor of the Aš tower, we can observe the surrounding landscape through eight glass windows. Orientation is greatly facilitated by the aforementioned copper plates on the parapets with directions and distances of the surrounding hills and towns.

• North view - Looking northwards, you can see the Saxon towns of Bad Elster and Adorf and then Schöneck with the highest railway station in Saxony. You can also see part of the nearby town of Hranice. Just a little further away are the Saxon towns of Oelsnitz and Plauen.
• Northeast - If we turn our view to the northeast, we can see the peaks of the Ore Mountains and also the highest mountain in the Czech part of this mountain range, 1244 m high Klínovec. Almost in the same direction is another prominent peak of the Ore Mountains on the German side, the Auersberg at 1018 metres above sea level.
• Southeast - A view of the peaks of the Slavkov Forest, such as the 983-metre-high Lesný Hill. A little further south you can see the majestic Dyleň Hill, which rises 940 metres above sea level.
• South - South of the lookout tower lies the Bavarian Hohenberg an der Eger, Arzberg or Marktredwitz.
• Southwest - To the southwest is the town of Schönwald or the 828-metre-high Kornberg.
• From south to west, the town of Aš can be seen like the palm of your hand.
• West - To the west lies the westernmost municipality of the Czech Republic, Krásná and the neighbouring Štítary. And just over the border is the Bavarian town of Rehau.

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Day 2#

The ruins of the Neuberg castle in Podhradí

They immediately gave the castle back to the family of Neuberg. The castle was later damaged by the troops of King Charles IV when its owners used the strategic location of the castle, which was near trade routes leading to Saxony, to carry out acts of banditry there.

From the year 1344, all the assets belonging to the Neubergs lying in the Aš Rrgion were gradually bought up by the House of Zedtwitz, who were related to the family of Neuberg. Conrad of Zedwitz acquired the Neuberg Castle in the year 1395 after he married Hedvika of Neuberg. In the year 1422, the Zedwitz estate was granted independence from Cheb by King Sigismund of Luxemburg, perhaps as a thanks for their non-participation in the Hussite Wars. As a result of that, the way of living in the Aš region changed, especially with regard to religion. Lutheranism started to spread in the region and soon it gained a powerful influence. In the 15^th century, the Church of Good Shepherd was built near the castle and in year the 1610, the castle of Neuberg burnt down. Until then, it had served as the headquarters of the Zedwitz family who ruled the whole Aš headland. Then the Zedwitz split up and moved to new chateaus in Kopaniny, Doubrava, Smrčina and Podhradí. Materials from the ruined castle were used for the construction of the new chateau in Podhradí, which was located in the close proximity of the Neuberg castle.  The original appearance of the castle is not known. Only a 22-metre high tower standing on a 29,5-metre high headland has been preserved. The circumference of the tower is 19.2 meters.

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Day 3#

Town hall

The Baroque building from 1733, built as the administrative center of the Zedtwitz estate, was destroyed by fire in 1814 and rebuilt between 1815 and 1816 according to plans by Angelus Pleffer from 1733. In 1885, the building was raised by a second floor and rebuilt into a pseudo-Renaissance form. After 1945, a museum was located here, later a city library. In 2003, the building was repaired and returned to its original purpose.

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