The New Town Hall is the most famous building in Ostrava and the largest town hall complex in the Czech Republic. The large two-wing building with a central part and an observation tower was built in 1925 to 1930. One of the main reasons of the New Town Hall construction was the preparation for the establishment of districts and the creation of the so-called Greater Ostrava by merging with the neighbouring Moravian municipalities (Hrabůvka, Mariánské Hory, Nová Ves, Přívoz, Vítkovice and Zábřeh nad Odrou). The main initiator was a government commissioner and later mayor, Jan Prokeš. The town hall was built according to the design of two architects, František Kolář and Jan Rubý. A young architect, Karel Kotas, was entrusted to lead the construction. The building, costing 52 million crowns in total, was inaugurated on 28th October 1930 on the occasion of the National Day of the Czechoslovak Republic. The central part of the building is reinforced with a 3 m thick concrete slab to support the highest, until now, town hall tower in the country. The tower is 85.6 metres high and the observation deck, which is accessible to the public, is at a height of 73 m; the tower clock weighs more than half a ton, the clock-face has a diameter of 350 cm and the hands are 175 cm long; the clockwork has now been replaced by modern technology, allowing beating hours regularly. The express lift in the tower in its heyday was the highest in the country (51 m). The square where the building of the New Town Hall is situated is called Prokeš Square. Since 1999, its dominant feature has been a statue of Icarus by the sculptor František Štork. Icarus weighs 7 tons and is the third largest bronze sculpture in the Czech Republic. The statue is supposed to symbolise, according to a legend, Ostrava’s takeoffs and falls. The observation tower is open to the public all year round and is one of the main tourist attractions of Ostrava. The tower is visited by up to 45 thousand visitors annually.