In the book "Memories" Jakob Aljaž describes in a very interesting way how and why the construction of the Aljaž Tower took place.
"I built the tower at my own expense and later donated it to the Slovene Alpine Association. I bought the summit of Triglav from the Dovška municipality for 1 fl. I was the highest landowner.
In this highest building in our country are kept a memorial book, stamps, three round stools for rest, especially in cold wind, and on the wall is painted a panorama with names of distant and nearby mountains.
In cold wind, the little tower is a good shelter, of course only for three or four people. Originally I had a samovar and a bottle of spirits in it; that was in those times when only idealists - honest people went to the mountains.
Due to wind and snow, the door is small and a bit off the ground. Individual parts of the tower, made of thick galvanized sheet metal, were made and assembled on Triglav by Mr. Anton Belec from St. Vid above Ljubljana.
The iron pillars (angle iron) inside the tower are concreted into the rock. The lightning rod on the north side extends 25 m from the roof down under the snow.
The wire is copper. But lightning also goes through other wires into the rocks, one of which it badly damaged.
Because of the tower I had a lot of lawsuits. The Germans sued me that I destroyed the underground first-order triangulation point, which was not true, because 40 years ago civil engineers only erected a wooden pyramid for surveying on the top of Triglav, which was destroyed by weather hazards.
The Czech-German provincial surveyor K. sued, who ordered the Radovljica surveyor to question farmers, tourists, hunters, guides - and all behind my back. The investigation had been going on for half a year before I found out. I obtained the relevant hearings and inquiries partly confidentially.
But I had good witnesses that 40 years ago the surveyors only erected a wooden pyramid, not laid an underground triangulation point. Witnesses were: Požganc (Janez Klinar) and the Srenj servant Gregor Legat. The Germans were already bragging, because the provincial surveyor had threatened:
"We will remove the Triglav tower and priest Aljaž will pay 1000 fl. fine."
But I knew what I knew, and I quietly fooled them.
When we were sitting in the inn garden in Radovljica and priest Berlic said to me:
"The Germans are plotting something against you on Triglav", my confident Gorenjska joke slipped out:
"They will all shit themselves together".
The whole company burst into laughter, including the judicial councilor.
It's also interesting how I pulled the wool over the eyes of the chief of the German Section Krain when the investigation about the Triglav Tower was going on, and we were drinking together at Šmercol.
He said to me: "We won't tolerate the tower here. We operate here and the tower must be demolished!"
I pretended to humbly beg him to leave the tower, because - "You know what tin is. In 5 years rust eats it and it's all over! The chief nodded satisfied: "That's true!"
I then happily told the Slovenes how I pulled his mustache. But the Triglav Tower has not been eaten by rust to this day.
All the annoyances were finally resolved by the soldiers.
Captain Schwarz proved that there was no underground triangulation point on Triglav before, but that civil surveyors only erected a wooden pyramid.
He asked me to let him use the tower for measurement, namely the line between roof and wall, and buried a box with parchment in the center of the tower as the real triangulation point, and said:
"Now the tower is under imperial protection, remains your property. No need to register it. No one has the right to damage the tower and from Vienna I gave order to the district authority that the gendarmes check every year if anyone damaged the tower. If you make any changes to the tower, also notify us."
I was happy because I got full satisfaction, and the Aljaž Tower soon became widely known among climbers, through storytelling and postcards, especially among the people it became famous through Janko Mlakar, who described in the Družba sv. Mohorja how he took Trebušnik to Triglav and barely stuffed him into the tower.
When Trebušnik had eaten his fill in the tower, it is written and shown in the picture how they pull him out through the too small door, screaming at the top of his lungs. This joke went all over the Slovenian world and Trebušnik himself liked it.
But the Triglav Tower was created like this:
In 1895 we went to build it: me, master Belec with one worker and my two workers Požganc and Kobar.
We overnighted then in the old small Dežman hut, as Slovenes didn't have any hut yet.
There was thick fog. So in the morning I didn't go to the top of Triglav, but stayed in the Dežman hut, from where I listened to them hammering together the individual parts of the Triglav Tower.
I talked with the keeper of the Dežman hut: glassmaker Vilman, whom I already knew before because he was from Mojstrana.
He said to me friendly and confidentially: It's lucky for you that there were no Germans here tonight; otherwise there would be no space for you. There were few beds along the wall, during the day they pulled the beds up to the wall. German tourists, members of Alpenverein - of course - have priority over Slovenes.
At that moment I decided to make the Triglav hut, namely a little hut just for myself and a couple of friends. If the Slovene Alpine Association wakes up to my call, we will build a big hut, where, I will inspect next week; if I don't find space elsewhere and no one helps me, I will build my little hut next to the Dežman hut 10 steps from it... - my national pride was so hurt.
It will happen! The world is ours, the Dovška municipality - 137 entitled persons, among whom I am too - but would a German strut so much in our world that a Slovene would go to Triglav only with fear? No!
A few years later a German who came from Triglav attacked me angrily in Mojstrana, saying: How dare the Slovene Alpine Association build a hut on Triglav when we Germans made the path up there!
The next week I went to Triglav again, accompanied by choir leader Matej Hubad who was accidentally with me, to check the Triglav Tower and determine the place for the Slovene Triglav hut.
We overnighted again in the Dežman hut, there we found the friendly Mr. Gassner, Tržič factory owner, with whom we sang: "Ave, maris stella" (Hail, Star of the Sea).
He had a nice baritone.
We also drank champagne, saved one bottle for the next day, for the opening of my tower on top of Triglav. It was beautiful weather, those present on the top: Matej Hubad, Gassner, me and my two workers Požganc and Kobar.
Požganc throws a dynamite cartridge that pops loudly, the champagne cork jumps up with a pop, we sing again: "Ave maris stella" then "Triglav, my home" and the opening was done. -
The wider public only later learned about the opening of the Triglav Tower.
Someone described the construction of the iron Triglav Tower in the supplement of the Laibacher Zeitung and even distant tourists were very interested in the tower.
In it there was safe shelter from cold, poisonous winds, when a tourist came sunburned in light clothing to the top of Triglav, in the tower he could spread his map and enjoy the calm view.
Sometimes up there the wind is so strong that it carries stones...
Excerpt from the book Aljaž collection (Klinar, Strojin, Urbanija, Škulj) Mohorjeva družba 1993 - Jakob Aljaž, Alpine Memories