TV signals and crawling babies

Prague is home to a smorgasbord of architecture: Gothic, Baroque, neo-Renaissance, and a huge metallic,  rocket-type thingy rising from a former Jewish cemetery 216 meters toward the sky with crawling babies on it.

The tower, lit up in the national colors of Russia the Czech Republic (I kid, my Czech friends, I kid ...)

When construction began on the Žižkov TV Tower in 1985, criticism was muted, but only because doing such things under the Communist regime was highly frowned upon. Upon its completion in 1992, the mockery was in full force -- locals said the structure ruined the skyline, was disproportionately tall, was too Communist, and even caused cancer in children. Over time, most locals' views have softened to either acceptance or indifference. It's even one of 31 towers to be on the list of the World Federation of Great Towers, although admittedly I don't know what that entails or means (perhaps a spot in the second round of qualifying for the Champions League).

The tower received its most iconic addition in 2000, when Czech sculptor/button-pusher David Černý created 10 babies to crawl up and along the tower. From an interview:

In 2000, Prague was the cultural city of Europe. Because I lived in Prague 3 at the time, where the tower is, the local authorities asked me if I would do something for them. I had two ideas, one of which was the TV tower. In the end they went for the tower idea. But it still took about a year and a half of negotiating before the mayor of Prague 3 approved the project. It was very complicated. ... 

I constructed the tower in 3D, actually that was the first time I started to use 3D properly. I couldn't imagine shouting 'Three meters to the right!' at the mountain climbers. Those babies are not just arbitrarily placed. I spent a lot of time positioning them before I was happy. Then they just put it together according to my plans. But they still ended up putting one of the babies in the wrong place.

The babies, whose faces appear to be barcodes or coin slots, were so popular that in 2001 they became a permanent part of the tower, another talking point that already has had more than its share.

For more photos of the tower, the surrounding area and other shots from this month, click here.

If you live in the Czech Republic, what are your views of the tower? Use the comments section below -- but you'll have to be a registered user to do so.