Větruše

The excursion château of 1897 on the bluff above Ústí nad Labem — lookout tower, restaurant, mirror maze, and a funicular straight from the shopping mall below.

Větruše is Ústí nad Labem’s front porch: a neo-renaissance excursion building of 1897 on the bluff directly above the station and the Labe, restored after decades of neglect into a hotel-restaurant with a 30-metre lookout tower, a mirror maze and a view that sorts the city out below you — the river, the port, Střekov castle across the valley. A funicular runs up from the Forum shopping centre for the lazy; walkers just climb the zig-zag path. For routes heading south into the Středohoří it is the natural first waypoint out of the city.