THE LUSATIAN MOUNTAINS The undiscovered beauty 1 Lusatian morning from the hill of Klíč THE LUSATIAN MOUNTAINS – THE UNDISCOVERED BEAUTY There are mountains which will astonish you, and of the Lusatian Mountains are the most beautiful and mountains which will move you. The Lusatian truly exceptional spots – vast, beautifully blooming Mountains are touching because they have meadows crawling up hillsides, spreading in valleys a human dimension. The highest peaks do not reach with solitaires of dateless trees and tempting people the altitude of 800 meters and yet these are the to wade barefoot in the grass. As soon as the summer mountains where you can find almost everything. ends, the Lusatian Mountains are transformed into They are a perfect link with the surrounding a heady pallet of striking colours and quiet shades. landscape formations – their sandstone rocks Then the winter lays down on the landscape and and rock cities look just like the same formations all the colours disappear. White mountain plains in Bohemian Switzerland, they have a volcanic and forests covered with snowy eiderdown full of character of the Central Bohemian Uplands with their sparkling sunny diamonds seem endless. conical tops protruding from the wooded hills and at the same time they bear a close resemblance to the The Lusatian Mountains are not crowded with Jizera Mountains with their far stretching mountain tourists. As if they were jealously guarded by ridges… All this is embodied in a unique complex those who know about this concealed treasure. where your soul becomes refreshed while your eyes In addition, the region is well known for its are sweeping the undulating relief. If they were not comfortable facilities and tourism services – the called the Lusatian Mountains, they could be called dense network of well-marked tourist and nature the Picturesque Mountains. The sight of them is trails, numerous and exceptionally varied biking comforting; their prominent landmarks are soaring tracks, ample opportunities for bathing, ideal and with dignity over the ridges covered with the curly well-known climbing terrains, an abundance of growth of mixed forests – Luž which is the highest mushrooms, wonderful fishing as well as the ideal one, massive Hvozd (Thick Forest), graceful Klíč conditions for winter sports. The local cross-country (Key), dreamy Studenec (Cold Hill) as well as Jedlová skiing trails are really wonderful and there are also (Pine Hill), the queen crowned with a stone lookout some interesting opportunities for downhill skiing. tower. Extensive talus slopes, surprisingly steep Moreover, the Lusatian Mountains are stretching as wooded hillsides and deep valleys, picturesque far as the Saxon side where they are called Zittauer rocky formations eagerly poking out above the tree Gebirge, i.e. the Zittau Mountains. The mountains tops, forest temples with columns of silver beeches, are indifferent to the national borders and people twinkling lights of flowering brooms and foxgloves, can freely pass the borders from state to state in beads of folk architecture, sacral monuments numerous places already for thirty years and see and breath-taking rock formations generously this wonderful region as a whole. scattered in the forests, stunning caves of Pusté Kostely (Abandoned Churches) carved by people, Be frank! How many Czechs could locate correctly historical towns with manors, castles, churches and the Lusatian Mountains at a blind map? Yet, they are basilicas, wild brooks and streams speeding in the offering far more than an ordinary man can imagine. arms of the Elbe river, mirrors of pond surfaces, Perhaps much more than any of the mountain ranges unusual groupings of round rocks, but also the forming the border belt of our country. It is the peace fanciful basalt and sandstone organs towering to of the countryside that often makes an enchanted the skies in a deafening chord. And furthermore visitor wander alone and alone, face to face to the there are some remarkable traces which were genuine beauty. impressed by people – glass works, rock theatres, lookout towers and tourist chalets remembering even the childhood of tourism, and small concrete redoubts commemorating the commitment to defend our own borders... Perhaps the meadows 3 ČESKÁ KAMENICE REGION STUDENEC/ COLD HILL A majestic gatekeeper In Bohemian Switzerland, between the villages -Saxon Switzerland lying open before him. The Saxon Jetřichovice and Chřibská, there is a charming place mesa mountains will emerge behind the silhouette called Na Potokách (On the Brooks). Right here, on of „Fujijama of Děčín” – Růžový Vrch (Rosy Hill) the left bank of the Chřibská Kamenice River, the which is alike an impressive basalt lighthouse in Lusatian Mountains begin. A rather narrow winding the middle of sandstone sea. If you turn a little, road surmounts a sharp hill and offers a stunning the horizon will change – the Western Lusatian view of a completely different landscape. Stately and Mountains, the mild surf of wooded ridges with dreamy Studenec (Cold Hill), overlooking beautiful conical islands of dormant volcanoes. This is where meadows where a herd of graceful hind with a mighty one world ends and harmoniously merges with stag are grazing, crowns the idyllic atmosphere of another. And you can just descend into the saddle the region. It is hard to believe that in the mid-18th below Studenec and get lost in the ocean of richly century the soldiers fighting in the monstrous battle flourishing satin flowers at the low foot of Javorek of the Austro-Prussian War were bleeding there. (Little Maple), then walk as far as the crossroad Today the grass is flattering in the wind and only at the Křížový Buk (Cross Beech) and the Lusatian small quiet monuments recall the human arrogance. Mountains will kindly open their arms and the tree A far stretched sea of stones glitters on the top of tops will whisper – You are welcome. Studenec where a herd of chamois is running around. Chamois were brought here by count Kinský in the early last century. The one who walks through the ancient colonnade of gleaming beeches and reaches the very peak can ascend the round staircase of the lookout tower above the tree tops and look towards the northwest. He will see Bohemian- 4 ZLATÝ VRCH/ GOLDEN HILL A stone cathedral Zlatý Vrch hill, towering over the charming village closed and since that time it has been possible to of Líska, is undoubtedly one of the wonders of admire the artful forces of nature. Whoever takes the Western Lusatian Mountains. As early as in the nature trail Studenec Surroundings which climbs the Tertiary, nature created the architecture which up Stříbrný Vrch (Silver Hill) where the material was humans, in spite of their self-confidence, were not quarried as well, can see rather different scenery able to create during the whole history. The first below – a mythical dragon with a steely grey mail impression is fascinating; this scenery simply takes of skin as if grown in the wall. Moreover, this spot your breath away. Slim columns drawing close to one offers a breath-taking view of the landscape for another in a stunning number, perfectly symmetrical miles away, the Central Bohemian Uplands and and sporadically up to thirty metres high are soaring Bohemian-Saxon Switzerland on the horizon while into the sky. It is a stone cathedral. The human the nearest vertices of the Lusatian Mountains – playfulness has created hundreds of statuettes from Pustý Zámek (Abandoned Chateau) and Břidličný the slivered pieces of basalt below the monumental Vrch (Slate Hill) – are almost within reach. We will wall. This place resembles a pagan sacrificial site, visit these destinations on the following two pages. an ancient chapel in the open air. However, its history is more mundane. In the 19th century, the extraction of the breath-taking basalt pillars began. These pillars originated in the volcanic times by solidification of magma which reduced its bulk and created perfectly regular pentagonal or hexagonal pillars. However, in the seventies of the last century people realized that the exposed wall due to the mining is worth their protection. The quarry was 5 ČESKÁ KAMENICE REGION BRATRSKÝ OLTÁŘ/ FRATERNAL ALTAR The oasis of human faith Česká Kamenice is guarded by dignified hills from – the Bratrský oltář (Fraternal Alter). Pictures of the all sides. A flat rock resembling a stone bridge is renovated Stations of the Cross are shining in the jutting from one of them and pointing into the space. green shade among the trees as if they grew from It is Jehla (the Needle). It is not only a remarkable the sandstone rocks by some magic. The staircase is outlook which the hill affords from its top; Jehla is lined by the statues of St John of Nepomuk and St an interesting hill through and through. Previously Anthony of Padua, the nearby rock altar is guarded there was a natural park with pavilions, promenades by the Angel of Death statue. Once it was a place and places where to rest. Today the slopes of Jehla where those whose faith was not just official sought are more mysterious but the trip here is one of the refuge from persecution, first Catholic Christians, most beautiful. It is good to start hiking from the later Protestants. Sitting on a stone step, feeling the pilgrimage grounds of the splendid late Baroque magic of genius loci and listening to the fragments Marian Chapel. The path from the town is guarded of prayers which have been echoing among the rocks by sandstone formations with lookouts which are for centuries is a balsam to the soul. If you overhear situated in the wooded slope – the Žába (Frog) is carefree whooping of children, do not be surprised. the first, the Ponorka (Submarine) is just behind.