Aš

The main town of the country's westernmost tip, surrounded by Germany on three sides — a textile town with the republic's only Martin Luther monument and the 1904 lookout tower on Háj.

Aš is the town of the Ašský výběžek, the promontory of Bohemia that pokes into Germany with the border on three sides. Its history reads differently from the rest of the country: the region stayed Lutheran after the Counter-Reformation, which is why Aš has the only Martin Luther monument in the Czech Republic, and its growth came from textile mills — the town museum, founded in 1893 in a factory-owner’s villa, tells that story.

Above the town rises Háj (Hainberg), with a 34 m stone lookout tower from 1904 — the westernmost lookout tower in the country. From its gallery the view spans the Czech–Bavarian borderland, the Smrčiny and Halštrov hills, and on good days the Krušné hory and Slavkovský les.