is a town in the east of Bohemia in the Pardubice Region, in the foothills of the Orlické Mountains. The town is spread both in the valley of the Divoká Orlice River and on the surrounding hills. Žamberk has an area of 16.91 km² and has over 6 thousand inhabitants. However, more than 9,100 inhabitants live in the nearest agglomeration, which the city creates together with the adjacent municipalities (Długoňovice, Helvíkovice, Lukavice and Líšnice). The town is both the administrative and natural catchment centre of the Žamberk microregion, which has almost 29 thousand inhabitants. The historical centre of the town forms an urban conservation zone. The town is a tourist starting point for the southern part of the Orlické Mountains and their foothills. To the west of the town there is a public domestic airport (sports airport). On the eastern outskirts of Žamberk there is a sports and recreation complex Pod Černým lesem.
Benešov – by eco-train from Benešov to Konopiště
The project is focused on newly introduced and provided tourism services that are oriented to the widest strata of the population with a preference for people for whom participation in tourism may be difficult. The project is open to all participants in tourism and to the inhabitants of Benešov and its surroundings. It combines important attributes that support tourism for all. It creates an alternative for transport to an important historical site that is attractive and which will be used by everyone regardless of their social status. It gives an opportunity to those who have to take into account the amount of money they spend in their free time and is accommodating to those who find it difficult to use common services in the field of tourism due to health limitations.
In its main activity, it supports the use of public transport (ecological train) and creates an alternative to support environmentally friendly transport, which will be adapted for the boarding and disembarking of disabled people, but also mothers with prams and seniors. The boarding points create a network so that the distance for all actors is as short as possible.
The project is intended for the following target groups of visitors:
- visitors to the state chateau Konopiště
- visitors to the town of Benešov
- inhabitants of the town of Benešov
- Disabled citizens
- Seniors
- families with children
- families with children with low incomes
- Children and young people
Your journey by eco-train from Benešov to Konopiště begins at the Czech Railways station, where you can see the imperial Imperial Lounge from the time when Archduke Franz Ferdinand d’Este resided in Konopiště. The next stop is located near the Benešov grammar school with an artistic gem – a reconstructed auditorium. The train will also take you past the Ferdinand brewery with a tradition of brewing beer since 1595. From the brewery, you will move to the city sports grounds with an ice rink, a football field and tennis courts, and a swimming pool. The fifth stop is the city cemeteries, consisting of a new and old cemetery and a historically interesting Jewish cemetery. From there, the train will take you to Benešov’s landmark – Karlov Hill, where you can admire the ruins of the monastery and the church with the bell tower. In the very center of the city on Masaryk Square, which is the seventh stop on the route, do not forget to visit the Tourist Information Center. The train journey continues past the Art Nouveau building of the Sokol hall decorated with sgraffito to the Rudolf and Stephanie Hospital. The name of the hospital reminds us again of the interconnectedness of the city with the Habsburg family. With this stop, the train leaves the town of Benešov and you will soon find yourself in the beautiful nature surrounding the Konopiště Castle. The first out-of-town, already the tenth stop, is Želetinka, which is now the seat of the Forests of the Czech Republic. From here you will get to the former house of the Konopiště Pond, today’s second Tourist Information Centre, located near the Konopiště Castle. The next stop on the route is the natural Nature Theatre, which offers unusual cultural experiences in the romantic surroundings of the Konopiště Park. From the theatre, the train will take you to Tuškov Hill, which offers a view of the castle and its surroundings. And finally, from Tuškov, you will descend to the stop under the Konopiště Chateau, where you will certainly not miss a visit to the castle and the castle park. On the way back to the starting stop at the train station, you will pass the last fifteenth stop of the train, which is the Villa of Captain Heller called Katuška.
Benešov – With honey for the bear
The Children’s Nature Trail is one of the novelties prepared by the city of Benešov for visitors for this tourist season. The ceremonial opening of the Benešov nature trail called With Honey to the Bear takes place on Saturday, June 8, and will be accompanied by a rich cultural program at Konopiště Castle. The educational trail connects the town of Benešov and its most beautiful monuments with Konopiště Castle.
Those interested can walk the entire trail individually throughout the day, or get on the city tourist eco-train along the way. The trail is complemented by quizzes and riddles, from which you will learn how much honey you have collected for Jirka the bear according to the correct answers at the finish line.
At Konopiště, you will not only meet Jiří the bear, but you will also meet other animals – such as peacocks in the Rose Garden or fallow deer, deer and mouflons in the new forest park opposite the Old Gamekeeper’s Lodge.
At the end of the journey, the treasure is also waiting for the children. But they will find out where it is hidden in the game plan. The map with the tasks is available at the Tourist Information Center on Masaryk Square in Benešov.
On the opening day, there will also be an accompanying program at the finish line in Konopiště intended for children – musicians, falconers, a magician and finally a beautiful fairy tale From the Diary of Blue-Eyed the Cat.
And because Danone and Pinko have also become partners of this day, free ice cream and yogurt await all children at the finish line.
Nový Jičín
Nový Jičín is a beautiful historic town located on the southern edge of the Moravian Gate in the Podbeskydy Uplands.
The town can boast of an unusually high number of sights that make up the Municipal Monument Reserve, which was declared in 1967. Of the cultural monuments, it is especially worth seeing the picturesque Nový Jičín square, which has no analogues in the Czech Republic. We can find here valuable burgher houses of former wealthy residents, complemented by arcades on all sides. Thanks to extensive reconstruction in 2008 and 2009, the statue of St. Nicholas returned to the central area of the square after more than 120 years, the path that led diagonally through the square for centuries was outlined, and new water features appeared – the “Fountain of Time” and the “Fountain of St. Nicholas”. The center of the square is still decorated with a plague column from the beginning of the 18th century and a stone fountain with a sculpture of dancing farmers.
The town is an ideal starting point for trips to the near and distant surroundings, to places full of historical monuments and to the mountains – the Moravian-Silesian Beskydy Mountains. The whole area is interwoven with marked hiking trails, cycle paths and nature trails. The town is crossed by the regional cycle route No. 502 “Starý Jičín – Hukvaldy”, which connects to the cycle route No. 5 “Moravian Gate”, cycle route No. 503 “Odersko” and through cycle route No. 6175 “Palacký Trail” also to cycle route No. 6016 “Wallachia”. From Nový Jičín to Jeseník nad Odrou, the local cycle route “Jesenická kyselka” leads to the mineral water springs. For hikers, there are, for example, the routes “Urban Conservation Area” or “Nový Jičín Daisy”. Athletes will certainly choose from a very wide range of sports facilities in Nový Jičín, where it is possible to play squash, tennis, badminton or bowling, among other things. Near the city center, you can swim in a modern area with an indoor and outdoor pool with a water slide. For recreational purposes, there is the Čerťák water reservoir, where you can also go sports fishing in addition to swimming. Only 3 km from the city center is the ski resort in Svinec.
Traditional events in the city
A number of cultural events are held in Nový Jičín every year. Among the most important is the recessionary event Burning of Witches, during the summer months the Nový Jičín Summer, which always closes at the beginning of September with the inevitable Town Festival.
Černá v Pošumaví
The village of Černá v Pošumaví is located at the widest point of the Lipno Dam, so it offers additional opportunities for water sports enthusiasts. In addition to sports activities and natural beauties in the vicinity of Lipno, you will also find several historically important buildings.
Interesting facts:
- Church of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary
- Chapels in the village and its surroundings
- Statue of St. John of Nepomuk
- Muckov limestone quarries
- Josef Adit, culminating in the Josefov Adit
Town of Kyjov
The cultural and administrative centre of the Kyjov region in South Moravia is the town of Kyjov, the venue of the folklore festival Slovácký rok. Kyjov is the second centre of folk culture in Slovácko, next to Strážnice, with a number of bands and ensembles operating here. It also offers a wide range of cultural events.
Tourist destinations include a set of monuments of modern architecture from the 1st half of the 20th century, a Renaissance town hall and a chateau, a number of churches and chapels, a museum of local history and four galleries. Since 1928, the Renaissance chateau with sgraffito decoration from the middle of the 16th century, which is the oldest preserved building in the town, has housed the Kyjov Museum of National History, a branch of the Masaryk Museum in Hodonín. The permanent exhibition of archaeological, ethnographic, natural history and the exhibition “Nature of the Kyjov Region” is complemented by occasional exhibitions.
The Moravian Year is the largest folklore event in the Kyjov region, which has a tradition since 1921. The most important ethnographic festival in the region has been held at regular four-year intervals since 1971. The event brings thousands of ethnography fans from all over the Czech Republic and abroad to Kyjov. The four days of August belong to folk traditions, customs and songs.
City of Náchod
The town of Náchod is the largest town of the Kłodzko Borderlands, it lies on the Metuj River at an altitude of about 350 m.
The founding of the town is associated with the knight Hron from the Načeratic family, who about half of the
In the 13th century, he founded a castle to protect the provincial trail connecting Prague with Kłodzko. The castle was located in a strategically advantageous place, where the trail passed through a pass called Branka. The name Náchod first appears in written sources in 1254, it is related to the designation of the place where people walk or walk.
At the border crossing with Poland, the city has become a natural administrative, economic and cultural center of the area. The most important historical monuments in Náchod include the Renaissance chateau with a French garden, the Gothic church of St. Lawrence. The Art Nouveau building of the city theater and the Neo-Renaissance building of the town hall. In the city we can find a regional museum or a gallery of fine arts. In the newly renovated spring, you can taste IDA mineral water.
Near the town there is also a fortification from the 30s of the 20th century – the Dobrošov Fortress with an exhibition of Czechoslovak fortifications. Other tourist destinations are Jirásek’s cottage with a lookout tower in Dobrošov or the deeply cut valley of the Metuje River between Náchod and Nové Město nad Metují. The most valuable part of this valley was declared a nature reserve in 1997 as the Peklo Nature Reserve.
Important personalities of cultural life born in Náchod include the writer and exiled publisher Josef Škvorecký, the singer and composer Sláva Vorolová, the painter Bohumír Španiel and the architect Jan Letzel. The works of Alois Jirásek are also related to the city, such as “Skaláci”, “At the Ducal Court” or “At Us”. The town of Náchod also claims to be an important figure at its annual cultural events. The most important of them are the “Náchod Curonian Festival” (in honour of Petr Kuronský, the owner of the Náchod estate at the end of the 18th century), the festival of student creativity “Náchod Prima Sezona” inspired by the books of Josef Škvorecký, or the chamber music festival Camerata Nova Náchod.
City of Kolín
The fertile Elbe lowland on both banks of the Elbe is the town of Kolín. Rich archaeological finds from the town and its immediate surroundings prove that this place was inhabited long before the preserved written documents are confirmed.
In the district regional museum there are numerous monuments of all the settlements in Bohemia known to date. There used to be an ancient crossroads of three important trade routes established since the times of the Roman Empire. The presence of the Slavs can be documented as early as the 6th century AD. In the 9th – 12th centuries, this area was already densely populated, as evidenced by numerous finds of fortified settlements and burial grounds. The first written document with the name of Kolín is dated September 8, 1261. In 1437, Frederick of Strážnice built a castle on the site of a demolished monastery, which was later rebuilt into a chateau. Many privileges granted to the town by the Czech rulers Charles IV and Wenceslas IV supported the development and wealth of the town. At that time, Kolín was one of the most prominent cities in the Czech kingdom. The greatest humiliation and misery occurred during the Thirty Years’ War, which brought the city to the brink of destruction.
Kolín (German: Kolin, or Köln an der Elbe) is a district town in the east of the Central Bohemian Region on the Elbe River. It has over 30,000 inhabitants and an area of 35 km² with an average altitude of 220 meters. It is an important railway junction. There are chemical, automotive, engineering, food and printing industries.
The name Kolín probably comes from the Old Czech word “koliti”, i.e. “to hammer stakes, stakes”, and is related to the location of Starý Kolín in the often flooded area at the confluence of the Klejnárka and Elbe rivers, in the vicinity of which the soil was strengthened with the help of wooden poles. Later, a more advantageous location was chosen for the developing market settlement on an elevated place 7 km to the west. The new settlement (and later the royal town) retained the name of the original settlement.
There are other, less likely interpretations. The name could also be derived from its location on an elevated place, a hill – Latin for “colinus”, which, however, is in contradiction with the existence of Old Cologne. According to another theory, the Latin form of Colonio is related to the arrival of German colonists to Bohemia.
In the spring of 2005, the Toyota-Peugeot-Citroën (TPCA) consortium car factory was opened on the northern outskirts of the city, employing 3,000 people, with a production capacity of 300,000 cars per year. The first model is the trio of Toyota Aygo, Peugeot 107 and Citroën C1, jointly developed and 92% identical, launched around mid-2005.
From the chemical industry, it is Draslovka in Kolín, Lučební závody and the PARAMO refinery (formerly KORAMO).
Town of Čáslav
In the middle of a wide promontory of the Elbe lowland, which is bordered as a vast bay by the Iron Mountains from the northeast and by the Upper Sázava Uplands from the southwest, there is the ancient town of Čáslav. The town was founded sometime around the middle of the 13th century by Přemysl Otakar II.
Today’s Čáslav is a medium-sized town – in 2008 the limit of ten thousand inhabitants was exceeded – which, in addition to a number of monuments, also offers its visitors a museum, gallery, theater, cinema, swimming pool and a number of modern sports facilities. The entire cadastre of the city measures 22 km2, the city itself has an area of 3.5 km2.
Since 2003 , the town of Čáslav has been an authorized municipality of the third degree and as such it is obliged to perform state administration and self-government to the extent belonging to these municipalities. A list of municipalities that fall under the administration of Čáslav can be found in the section Authorized Territory.
However, Čáslav, sometimes also called the gateway to the Iron Mountains, is also a town of majorettes, whose local groups have been winning one medal after another at domestic and foreign competitions for many years, it is the city of the excellent Youth Wind Orchestra. It comes from Čáslav and many excellent athletes associate their sports beginnings with it. For all of them, we can name probably the most famous ones, which are the runner Jarmila Kratochvílová and her no less famous protégé Ludmila Formanová – both world champions in the 800 m run.
Libverda Spa – fountain
SPA LIBVERDA, a.s. is a traditional spa complex located in the village of the same name in the valley of the Jizera Mountains at an altitude of 424 meters. It is a quiet place with a pleasant climate, but do not worry that you will be cut off with us. The distance of 25 km from the regional city of Liberec guarantees easy accessibility by car, train or bus.
The history of the spa industry itself dates back to the discovery of the effects of local mineral springs, as early as the end of the 14th century. After the growing fame of the Libverd spa, the status of a “healing spa” was granted in 1936 and we cordially invite you to it.
In addition to therapeutic procedures that are aimed at patients with diseases of the musculoskeletal system and also of the heart and blood circulation, the spa area is also suitable for sports and relaxation stays. For relaxation and rehabilitation not only of patients, there is a rehabilitation pool located directly on the colonnade. The newly built Jizera Wellness Center is an opportunity for overall regeneration and rest of the body, not only thanks to the beautiful environment in which you can forget about the problems of the outside world, but also for the offer of quality wellness services – anti-stress and regeneration wraps, massages, anti-cellulite programs, etc.
Accommodation in the spa complex is divided into several categories, which also determine the price. Most of the accommodation facilities have undergone extensive reconstruction and modern rooms are available.
Some of the historic buildings are registered in the National Heritage Fund of the Czech Republic. The listed buildings include the Vodoterapia Spa House, the Zámeček Spa House and the Jizera Spa House.
Thanks to its location and pleasant climate, the spa is a place suitable for recreational tourism, or trips to the mountains through many hiking trails. For active leisure time, there are tennis courts, a mini-golf course and, last but not least, a fitness center. In the summer, it is easy to use the nearby bike paths, in winter, on the other hand, the use of cross-country trails.
Since May 2009, SPA LIBVERDA, a.s. has been publishing a monthly magazine “Libverda Spring” for our guests, where readers will find a lot of interesting information, such as the development of construction modifications to the spa area, a look back at events that have already taken place, crosswords, sudoku or they can be inspired by the recipes of the spa chef.