It all began in 1898 in Wien at the exhibition of the 50th anniversary of reign of Franz Josef I. At this exhibition there was also a giant cask serving to the purpose of a wine house. One of the visitors of this wine house was Wilhelm Huebel, landlord from Dlouhé Mosty near Liberec. The idea of having a wine house in a cask was so inspiring that he convinced a group of his friends and after the exhibition was over, they bought the cask for 600 golden coins, took it apart and all these parts transported on 4 train carriages from Wien to Liberec. At the beginning of next year they started to build a restaurant, which consisted also from the giant cask. The opening ceremony of the new restaurant was on 18th June 1899.
Observation tower
The wooden, semi-covered 18 metres tall observation tower was build some years later and officially opened to the tourists on 24th May 1924. During the WWII the observation tower was almost destroyed and later during 40s/50s of the 20th century had to be demolished.
Fire
The date 20th September 1974 is remembered as a day of the fire which completely destroyed the restaurant and the giant cask. Even though the idea of the renovation has risen a few times, the voices are not so strong and therefore nowadays you can see only the remains of what used to be the old restaurant.
řel. Ačkoliv se později několikrát uvažovalo o obnově jak komplexu, tak rozhledny, zatím k němu nedošlo. Do současnosti se dochovaly pouze zarostlé zbytky pilířů a základů.