Jelinekwarte

The Jelinekwarte stands on Rudolfshöhe, a hill 524 metres above sea level in Scheibbs, Lower Austria. It is a wooden observation tower 12.3 metres tall, built in 1953 by the local traffic and beautification society. The tower looks north over the town of Scheibbs and, on clear days, as far as the Danube and the Waldviertel. It was named after Dr Heinrich Jelinek, a notary and local historian who lived from 1884 to 1964. The wooden structure was fully restored in 2007. Heinrich Jelinek came from a Moravian family and became widely known for his work on Scheibbs’s historic marksmen’s targets. He recorded each target in word and image, decoded their complex symbolism, and laid the foundations for today’s understanding of one of the largest such collections in the German-speaking world. The tower was erected on the Burgerhof above the town while he was still alive, as a visible sign of gratitude. The Jelinekwarte sits beside the stone Urlingerwarte on Blassenstein, a well-known landmark of Scheibbs. On the Greinberg between the two towers once stood the Greinberg or Burgerhofwarte, built of wood in 1892 and removed around 1935; only its foundations remain today.