Industrial landmark of the Tesla years • Rožnov pod Radhoštěm
Two chimneys above the former Tesla works, which changed the face of the town
Two factory chimneys on the western edge of Rožnov can be seen from much of the town. They belong to the site of the former Tesla Rožnov works.
After 1949 the works turned a small town of three thousand people with a spa past into an industrial one. At the height of its fame it employed around nine thousand people. The company is gone; the site and the chimneys are still standing.
What it is about
The church tower recalls the burghers' Rožnov, the chimneys the industrial one. Without Tesla the town would not look the way it does – the housing estates, schools and sports facilities grew up around the works.
Access
The site is a working fenced industrial plant. You can see the chimneys from the streets around it and from much of the town; up close they are shown by the 360° images from a drone and from the foot of the chimneys.
What to look for
The galleries and ladders of the taller chimney, the brickwork of the lower one – and the caps that now cover both mouths.
From an unfinished textile mill to a town of vacuum tubes, picture tubes and chips
1948–1949
On what was then the edge of Rožnov, the textile firm ELITE was building a factory – it planned to make stockings here. In November 1948, however, the government decided to transfer the unfinished buildings to the national enterprise TESLA; a founding charter of 26 July 1949 then created Tesla Rožnov.
Building went quickly: work on the first industrial building started in January 1949, and by the end of that year production and heating were running in it. The first product to leave the factory gates, in the autumn of 1949, was a high-pressure mercury lamp for “sun lamps”.
In its first year the works employed over 1,300 people, most of them women – recruitment was still running to the original textile plan.
1950s–1980s
Vacuum tubes for radio sets went into production in Rožnov in 1950, and the new work at once called for technicians of its own: a technical secondary school of vacuum electronics was founded here, the famous “vakuovka”, for three decades a prestigious school of national standing.
The works grew along with electronics as a whole: from vacuum tubes through picture tubes for black-and-white television sets to germanium diodes and transistors. Then came the production of single-crystal silicon and finally integrated circuits. The last big new venture was series production of colour picture tubes under licence – the only licensed programme in the company's history.
The town grew with the works. Tesla built housing estates, schools, nurseries and sports facilities, and turned Rožnov, which had around three thousand inhabitants before it arrived, into a town five times larger. At the height of its fame it employed around nine thousand people, roughly a sixth of them university graduates.
After 1990
After 1990, under the new conditions, the beginning of the end arrived: the industrial colossus broke up into a series of separate companies and the Tesla Rožnov name disappeared within a few years. Picture tube production, the last big programme, ended in 2008. The Tesla tradition is recalled by the exhibition “(NE)zapomenutá TESLA”, prepared for the works' 65th anniversary by Valašské muzeum v přírodě.
The site did not stay empty; dozens of companies have their base here today. The Tesla tradition is carried on by semiconductor production, one of the largest in the country.
The chimneys have remained the tallest structures on the site and, together with the church tower, make up the town's skyline. They are still a reminder of an industrial century.
It carries red and white stripes, three galleries with railings and ladders up its shell. It is the one that shapes the town's silhouette – visible from the river, from the housing estates and from the surrounding hills. It is named after Jaroslav Hora, for many years the director of the works.
It stands right beside it, in bare brick, without galleries and noticeably older to look at. It hides behind its taller neighbour – you will mostly catch it on its own from the side of the site. It is named after Karel Vancl, the first director of the works.
Timeline
From the takeover of an unfinished textile mill in 1948 to the present day.
1948
The government decides to transfer the unfinished buildings of the ELITE textile mill in Rožnov to the national enterprise TESLA. The planned textile production comes to nothing.
1949
On 26 July a founding charter establishes Tesla Rožnov. That autumn the first product leaves the factory gates – a mercury lamp for sun lamps.
1950
Production of vacuum tubes for radio sets starts up; 1,400 employees make more than two million of them a year.
1951
A technical secondary school of vacuum electronics is founded – for more than thirty years a prestigious school of national standing.
1950s
Picture tubes for black-and-white television sets are added to the vacuum tubes (black-and-white production runs until 1990), and in 1956 germanium diodes and transistors.
1959
The works masters the production of single-crystal silicon – the first crystals are 20 mm across. Silicon diodes and transistors follow.
1967
Production of integrated circuits begins – from simple analogue ones to whole families of logic circuits.
1984
Series production of colour television tubes under a foreign licence – the only licensed programme in the company's history.
1990
Under the new social conditions the industrial enterprise starts breaking up into separate companies; the Tesla Rožnov name gradually disappears.
2008
Production of colour picture tubes ends – the last big programme leading directly back to Tesla.
Today
Dozens of companies are based on the site and semiconductor production carries on the tradition; the chimneys remain the tallest structures there and part of the town's skyline.
Two factory chimneys on the western edge of Rožnov – the last visible reminder of the former Tesla Rožnov works, which between 1949 and 1990 turned a town of three thousand into an industrial one with thousands of employees.
The site is a fenced industrial plant – there is no entry. You can see the chimneys from the streets around the site and from much of the town; up close they are shown by the 360° tour on this page – two views from a drone and one from the foot of the chimneys.
No. Their mouths are capped today. They remain the tallest structures on the site and, with the church tower, make up the town's skyline.
In turn high-pressure mercury lamps, vacuum tubes for radio sets, picture tubes for black-and-white television sets, transistors and, from 1967, integrated circuits. From 1984 also colour television tubes under licence.
Dozens of companies. The Tesla tradition is carried on by semiconductor production, one of the largest in the country.
Yes – the lower one is called Karel (after the first director, Karel Vancl) and the taller one Jaroslav (after Jaroslav Hora, for many years the director). They belonged to the site's power plant.
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