Places
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Alainova věž
A neo-Gothic sandstone hunting tower from 1862 on the southern slope of Tábor, built in memory of Alain Rohan — restored by Lomnice nad Popelkou and opened as a lookout in 2015.
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Aš
The main town of the country's westernmost tip, surrounded by Germany on three sides — a textile town with the republic's only Martin Luther monument and the 1904 lookout tower on Háj.
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Bečov nad Teplou
A little town in the Teplá valley whose castle-and-chateau complex guards the reliquary of St Maurus — after the crown jewels, the country's most precious goldsmith's work, hidden under a chapel floor until 1985.
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Belvedér na Vysoké
The monumental ruin of Count Špork's baroque summer palace and chapel of St John the Baptist on Vysoká hill (471 m) — built 1695–97, struck by lightning in 1834 and never rebuilt.
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Beroun
A royal town at the meeting of the Berounka and the Litavka, between Český kras and Křivoklátsko — two gothic town gates, a walkable old core, and the Berounský medvěd brewery.
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Bezděz
Přemysl Otakar II's best-preserved castle (completed by 1279) on its unmistakable twin-coned hill — early gothic chapel, prison of the boy-king Václav II, and Mácha's inspiration for Máj.
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Bílina
A small spa town squeezed between the Bořeň rock and the coal basin — Lobkowicz castle above the square, the Kyselka spring park, and rail connections along the basin.
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Bílý mlýn
The ruin of a water mill first mentioned in 1432 between Kbelnice and Zebín — it ground until a fire in 1937 and was never rebuilt; a KČT junction still carries its name.
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Bílý Újezd
A village at the foot of the Milešovka group, first recorded in 1276, with a preserved Gothic stronghold of the Kaplíř family — a waypoint on the walking routes from Velemín.
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Błędne skały
A rock labyrinth on the Polish side of the Góry Stołowe — a one-way squeeze through corridors sometimes shoulder-wide, between mushroom rocks at 850 m.
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Bořeň
A 539 m phonolite monolith above Bílina — the largest rock of its kind in central Europe, a national nature reserve whose silhouette from the north-west is a lying lion.
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Bouřňák
An 869 m summit of the eastern Krušné hory above Mikulov, carrying the range's first Czech tourist hut (1930) and a winter ski hill, with views south to the České středohoří.
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Brada
A 438 m hill above Brada-Rybníček north of Jičín — scant traces of a 13th-century castle, an 1891 memorial cross to the Battle of Jičín, and one of the best views over the Jičín basin.
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Břístevská hůra
One of the three low "Polabské hůry" hills, carrying the ruin of a baroque cross-shaped chapel from 1714 that lightning burned three times.
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Brocno
A village heritage zone on the ridge between the Labe plain and the Kokořínsko — folk architecture around a broad green, on record since 1357 when it belonged to the new Charles University.
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Broumov
The monastery town of the basin — a Benedictine complex rebuilt by the Dientzenhofers, keeper of a rare Turin Shroud copy, with full services for hikers crossing the stěny.
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Broumovské stěny
The sandstone wall between the Broumov and Police basins — a national nature reserve ridge of rock gates, caves and the Skalní divadlo amphitheatre, topped by Božanovský Špičák at 773 m.
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Čap
A sandstone spur west of Dubá with the rock-cut traces of a 14th-century castle and the Čapská palice club nearby — one of the best open views on the Kokořínsko plateau.
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Černolické skály
A group of quartzite crags above the village of Černolice — a traditional climbing school for Prague mountaineers, with an open view over the Berounka lowland.
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Český Brod
An old bishop's market town on the Prague–Kolín road, royal town since 1437 — St Gothard's church with its renaissance bell tower, remains of 14th-century walls, and the Lipany battlefield close by.
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Cheb
A border town with a thousand years of German-Czech history — the crooked half-timbered Špalíček on the square, the imperial castle with its Black Tower, and the house where Wallenstein was murdered.
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Choltice
A half-built baroque château of the Thun family (finished 1670–78) whose octagonal chapel of St Romedius, 24.5 m of stucco and painting, ranks among the finest early baroque spaces in the country.
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Chvojen
A hilltop church from 1217 above the Konopiště woods — the second oldest in the Benešov region, standing on the site of a Celtic hillfort, with medieval frescoes uncovered during Franz Ferdinand's restoration.
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Chyše
A small town on the Střela with a Tudor-Gothic castle where Karel Čapek once tutored, and a castle brewery pouring its own beer again since 2006.
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Cínovec
A mining hamlet at 835 m straddling the Czech–Saxon border, digging tin since the Middle Ages — the mine closed in 1990, and the lithium under it is talked about again.
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Davle
A village at the meeting of the Sázava and the Vltava — its old iron bridge played the Rhine bridge in The Bridge at Remagen, filmed here in the summer of 1968.
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Děčín
The city where the Elbe leaves Bohemia — a château on a rock above the river, and a main station on the Prague–Dresden line that makes it a first-rate trailhead.
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Děčínský Sněžník
The largest table mountain in the country, 723 m, capped by a stone lookout tower from 1864 — one of the oldest in Bohemia — with views from the Krušné hory to the sandstone country across the border.
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Děd
The oldest tourist lookout tower in Bohemia — the KČT's first, a 12-metre stone tower of 1893 on the wooded hill above Beroun; closed for repairs since 2022.
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Dobříš
A town under the Hřebeny with a French-garden rococo château of the Colloredo-Mansfelds — a practical trailhead with buses and trains toward Prague.
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Doerellova vyhlídka
A painter's viewpoint on the rim above the Labe near Dubičky — named for E. G. Doerell, who kept returning to paint the river's meander through the hills.
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Doksany
A village on the lower Ohře built around a Premonstratensian convent founded in 1144, with the Romanesque crypt of its church preserved.
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Dřemčice
A small village of the Třebívlice parish under the southern rim of the range — the trailhead for the blue-marked climb to Blešenský vrch.
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Dubá
A little town on the eastern edge of the Kokořínsko sandstone country that was once a leading hop region — its twin-towered hop kiln is the only one of its kind left in Bohemia.
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Dubičky
A hamlet on the rim of the Labe valley whose 1579 church of St Barbara stands at one of the finest viewpoints over the river's course through the Středohoří.
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Františkovy Lázně
The smallest of the west Bohemian spa triangle — yellow-and-white empire architecture, the František spring, and UNESCO Great Spa Towns status since 2021.
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Hazlov
A village of the Ašsko borderland whose part-ruined castle-turned-chateau guarded the old trade road from Cheb into Germany — first recorded in 1224.
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Hazmburk
The emblem of the western České středohoří — a Gothic castle ruin with two towers on a basalt hill above Klapý, its White Tower open as a lookout.
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Helfenburk
A 14th-century castle ruin on a sandstone ridge near Úštěk, once a stronghold of the Prague archbishops — freely accessible, with the tower opened at weekends.
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Heřmanův Městec
A small town under the Železné hory with a château in an English park, a long square for lunch — and one of the best-preserved Jewish quarters in eastern Bohemia.
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Hlavatice
A sandstone lookout rock above Turnov, climbed by an iron spiral staircase since 1908 — the first viewpoint on the red Golden Trail into the Hruboskalsko rocks.
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Hlinná
A small village high in the central České středohoří below Lysá hora, with a village pub — a natural lunch stop on the Hlinná–Kamýk ridge walks.
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Hlinsko
A town on the upper Chrudimka at the edge of the Žďárské vrchy, best known for Betlém — a preserved quarter of 18th- and 19th-century timber cottages, now part of the Vysočina open-air museum.
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Holany
A village at the eastern end of the Holany pond system — a chain of fishponds built between the 15th and 17th centuries, now a quiet landscape of water, reeds and birds.
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Holý vrch u Hlinné
Steppe grassland on the bare tops above Hlinná — a nature reserve since 1949 for its pasque flowers, with one of the great open panoramas of the České středohoří.
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Hořidla
A freely accessible 14 m steel lookout tower (2008) on a 371 m hill near Chotiněves, with a circular view from the České středohoří to Říp and Ještěd.
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Houska
Přemysl Otakar II's early gothic castle on a rock above the Kokořínsko woods — famous for the "gate to hell" legend, 13th-century chapel frescoes and the mystery of why it was built at all.
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Hradsko
A hamlet on a cliff-edged plateau above the Pšovka valley, on the site of a great early-medieval stronghold — likely the Canburg besieged by Charlemagne's Franks in 805.
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Hrob
A small town under the Krušné hory scarp whose Protestant church, demolished in 1617, helped spark the Thirty Years' War — its foundations are preserved as a memorial.
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Husa
A goose-shaped sandstone rock on a 449 m summit above Tuhaň — a natural monument since 1991 for its iron-crusted, mushroom-like weathering, with a marked trail directly over the top.
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Hvězda
A tiny hamlet of timber-framed houses at the western foot of Vlhošť, founded in 1676 by the bishop of Litoměřice.
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Hvězda (Broumovské stěny)
Dientzenhofer's star-shaped chapel of Our Lady of the Snows (1733) on the cliff edge of the Broumovské stěny, with a Swiss-style wooden chalet beside it and the whole Broumov basin below.
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Javořice
The highest point of the Bohemian-Moravian Highlands at 837 m — a forested summit with a TV mast and no view; the panorama waits at Míchova skála nearby.
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Javornická hůra
A wooded 583 m hillock between Zdislavice and Trhový Štěpánov, topped by Kalamajka — a 26 m wooden lookout tower from 2021 on the site of a 1931 KČT tower.
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Javorský vrch
A 617 m meadow summit above the village of Javory — the highest point of the north-eastern České středohoří, with open views across the hills to the flat rim of Děčínský Sněžník.
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Jedlová
An 853 m beech-covered hill dominating the Krušné hory scarp between Chomutov and Most, its steep slopes strewn with rock blocks and climbing towers.
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Jestřebí
The ruin of a rock castle carved into a sandstone block above the village — founded by the Berkas of Dubá in the late 14th century, taken by the Hussites in 1426, freely accessible.
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Jevín
The earthwork remains of a small medieval castle above Jeviněves — reputedly a robber-knight's seat destroyed in the 14th century, with a massive neck moat still readable in the woods.
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Jezeří
A Baroque Lobkowicz chateau perched on the Krušné hory slope directly above the ČSA open-cast mine — once host to the private premiere of Beethoven's Eroica, now slowly being rescued.
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Jílové u Děčína
A small town in the valley under Děčínský Sněžník, with a moated château on the square and enough pubs and shops to make it the natural supply stop before the climb.
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Jílové u Prahy
The medieval gold town of Bohemia — centuries of mining under and around the town, a museum devoted to gold, and visitable mine galleries in the wooded valleys nearby.
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Kalich Castle
Ruin of the castle Jan Žižka built for himself in 1421 — he took his epithet "of the Kalich" from it. A short climb above Řepčice with wide views of the středohoří.
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Kalvárie (Tři kříže)
A 239 m rock above the Porta Bohemica river gate with three crosses on its summit — a nature reserve of steppe flora and the classic view of the Labe entering the Středohoří.
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Kalvárie u Miličína
A 698 m hill above Miličín in the heart of "Czech Siberia" — an octagonal baroque chapel from 1748 reached by a fourteen-station Way of the Cross, with a rock lion in the woods behind.
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Kamenná slunce
A quarry face near Hnojnice where volcanic tuff dried around basalt bombs into radiating "stone suns" — a geological formation described nowhere else in the world.
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Kamýk
The ruin of a Gothic castle on a basalt spur above the village of Kamýk near Litoměřice, first recorded in 1319 — a fragment of its great five-sided tower still stands.
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Kašperk
The highest royal castle in Bohemia — built for Charles IV in 1356 to guard the gold mines and the Golden Trail — with the Pustý hrádek outwork nearby offering the best view of it.
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Kašperské Hory
A former royal gold-mining town high in the Šumava foothills — renaissance town hall on a sloping square, the Šumava museum, and Kašperk castle an hour's walk above.
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Kersko
A grid of lanes and cottages in a pine forest — Bohumil Hrabal's home ground, with the Svatojosefský mineral spring and the Hájenka restaurant of Snowdrop Festival fame.
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Klíč
A bare phonolite cone above Nový Bor, fourth highest of the Lužické hory — a nature reserve since 1967, with a rocky summit platform and one of the finest circular views in northern Bohemia.
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Kloč
The third highest summit of the České středohoří (737 m) — a domed, fully forested mountain above Kostomlaty pod Milešovkou, with only partial leafless-season glimpses toward Hradišťany.
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Kokořín
The castle of the Kokořínský důl valley — built after 1320, left a "cursed castle" ruin for centuries, and rebuilt 1911–1918 in the first comprehensive rescue of a medieval ruin in Bohemia.
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Kondrac
A farming village under the north side of Velký Blaník, with a Romanesque church of St. Bartholomew and a decent pub for hikers coming off the hill.
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Konopiště
The château of Archduke Franz Ferdinand d'Este — a 13th-century French-style castle turned lavish residence, set in a vast landscaped park with a rose garden, 2 km west of Benešov.
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Korecký vrch
A sandstone summit above Korce in the eastern Kokořínsko — a short green-marked spur leads to a bench-and-view top with Bezděz, Ralsko and Vlhošť on the horizon.
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Korunka
A 30-metre steel lookout tower above Černolice, deliberately tilted 7.5° — more than the Tower of Pisa — with a crown-shaped top and views from Prague to the Brdy.
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Košťálov
A Gothic castle ruin on the bare basalt cone of Košťál (481 m) above Třebenice — one of the signature silhouettes of the middle České středohoří, freely accessible.
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Kostomlaty pod Milešovkou
A 14th-century castle ruin on a cone above the village of the same name, its corner tower reopened as a lookout in 2014 — the western gate of the Milešovka massif.
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Krásenský vrch
A 25 m stone lookout tower of 1935 climbed by an external spiral ramp modelled on the Samarra minaret — an unemployment-relief build that became one of the country's loveliest towers.
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Kravaře
A village below Ronov hill with the Vísecká rychta — the largest timber-framed farmhouse in Bohemia, now a folk-housing museum — and the U Doušů pub. Railway halt on the Česká Lípa–Litoměřice line.
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Křížová hora
The southern end of the wooded Dlouhý vrch massif above Žitenice — its rock edge carries Laffitova vyhlídka, a viewpoint with a bench looking over Litoměřice country, Radobýl, Hazmburk and Říp.
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Krupka
An old tin-mining town under the Krušné hory scarp — its mining landscape is UNESCO-listed, and the Bohosudov quarter holds the pilgrimage basilica of Our Lady of Sorrows.
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Krušovice
The brewery village of the Rakovník region — beer brewed since 1581, once property of Emperor Rudolf II, and a village bakery that feeds passing walkers better than most pubs.
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Kumburk
A mighty castle ruin at 642 m above the Jičín basin — founded by the Vartemberks before 1325, slighted by imperial order in 1658, its restored tower now a lookout.
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Kutná Hora
The medieval silver capital of Bohemia and a UNESCO site — St Barbara's cathedral above the Vrchlice valley, the royal mint at the Italian Court, and the Sedlec ossuary on the edge of town.
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Levín
A hilltop pottery townlet north of Úštěk — six hundred years of unbroken ceramic tradition, a round late-Baroque church on the square, and a 13th-century castle ruin above.
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Libochovice
A small town on the Ohře with one of Bohemia's finest early-baroque chateaux (1683–1690) — birthplace of the physiologist Jan Evangelista Purkyně — and Hazmburk filling the northern view.
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Lichnice
A royal castle ruin on the rim of the Železné hory above Třemošnice — Charles IV's inalienable fortress, razed in 1649, with the Milada platform of 2017 standing where the tower stood.
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Lipská hora
A steep trachyte cone above Lipá, one of the sharpest silhouettes of the central Středohoří — its sun-baked southern slopes a nature reserve of warm-loving flora.
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Litvínov
A town squeezed between the Krušné hory slope and the North Bohemian coal basin — for hikers, the rail-connected gateway to the eastern part of the range.
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Loket
A gothic castle town wrapped in a loop of the Ohře — "the elbow" that gave it its name — with a romanesque-gothic royal castle, Goethe memories and one perfect huddle of roofs.
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Louňovice pod Blaníkem
The little town at the foot of Velký Blaník — the natural lunch stop of any Blaník walk, and the birthplace of the baroque composer Jan Dismas Zelenka.
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Louny
A royal town on the Ohře below the southern edge of the České středohoří, with preserved walls, the Žatec Gate and Benedikt Rejt's late-Gothic church of St Nicholas.
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Lovoš
A 570 m basalt cone above Lovosice with the only summit tourist hut in the České středohoří — refreshments at weekends and a wide view over the Labe valley, Milešovka, Říp and Hazmburk.
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Lovosice
An industrial Elbe town at the foot of Lovoš and the mouth of Porta Bohemica — the busiest rail gateway into the western České středohoří.
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Lysá hora
A flat-topped 577 m basalt hill above Hlinná with tall frost-split rock columns on its slopes — its grassy flanks form the Holý vrch pasque-flower reserve.
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Malý Blaník
The quieter twin of Velký Blaník, hiding the atmospheric ruin of St. Mary Magdalene's chapel with a huge spruce growing out of its nave.
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Mariánské Lázně
The youngest and greenest of the great west Bohemian spas — a UNESCO town of colonnades and a hundred springs, ringed directly by the forests of the Slavkovský les.
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Mělník
The wine town on the rock above the meeting of the Vltava and the Labe — château terrace views over the confluence and Říp, vineyards planted since Charles IV.
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Míchova skála
Two granite towers up to 13 m high in the woods northeast of Javořice — a nature monument and, since a 1980s forest fire opened the horizon, one of the highlands' few real viewpoints.
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Milá
A solitary bell-shaped steppe cone in the far south-west of the Středohoří — a nature reserve of pheasant's eye and feather grass, with a reintroduced ground-squirrel colony since 2019.
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Milešovka
The highest peak of the České středohoří (837 m) and the windiest place in the Czech Republic, topped by a meteorological observatory measuring continuously since 1905.
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Milevsko
A quiet town around the oldest monastery of southern Bohemia (1187) — where a 2020 find in the church attic produced what may be a nail from the True Cross.
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Mšené-lázně
A small, quiet spa founded by the Kinský family in 1796 in a green valley south of the Ohře — its jewel the Art Nouveau Dvorana pavilion of 1905 by Jan Letzel, architect of Hiroshima's A-Bomb Dome.
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Mšeno
A small town at the eastern gate of the Kokořínsko sandstone — Art Deco municipal baths from 1932, the Debř rock park, and rail access into the walking country.
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Načeradec
A hillside townlet in the middle of Podblanicko, first recorded in 1184 — its church of St. Peter and Paul keeps a Romanesque core under centuries of Gothic additions.
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Nedvězí
A 458 m hill above the hamlet of Nedvězí in the eastern Kokořínsko — an unmarked climb rewarded with one of the plateau's few open views.
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Nižbor
A Berounka village below a chateau with a Celtic exposition — the great Stradonice oppidum on the plateau above minted gold coins here two thousand years before the Rückl glassworks by the station.
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Nový Bor
The glassmaking capital of northern Bohemia at the foot of the Lužické hory — glass school since 1870, a dedicated glass museum, and the trailhead side of Klíč.
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Oblík
The perfect steppe cone of the Lounské středohoří — 509 m, a national nature reserve, with Srdov and Brník continuing the line of hills eastward.
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Okoř
The ruin every Prague generation has sung about — a gothic castle of the 1350s on a rock in the Zákolanský brook valley, wrecked in the Thirty Years' War and left to romance since 1773.
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Oltářík
The ruin of a Hussite castle built after 1426 by captain Jakoubek z Vřesovic on a steep basalt cone above Děkovka — small remains, huge views.
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Oparno
The village above the Opárenské údolí valley, with a freely accessible Gothic castle ruin on its wooded spur and a rail halt on the Lovosice–Teplice line.
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Ostaš
A table hill above Police nad Metují with two rock labyrinths and the Sluj Českých bratří — the cave where the Bohemian Brethren hid after White Mountain.
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Ostré Calvary
Three baroque chapels on an open hilltop above the hamlet of Ostré near Úštěk, reached by a sandstone staircase and a Way of the Cross.
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Ostrý (hrad)
A late-Hussite-era castle ruin of the Kaplíř family on a basalt cone below Milešovka — first mentioned 1436, abandoned within a century, with walls and views that repay the steep climb.
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Peruc
The village of the Oldřich and Božena legend — a thousand-year oak, Božena's spring under a neo-Gothic shelter, a chateau on the ridge and a rail halt below.
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Písečný vrch
An unassuming 318 m rise near Bečov that hides the oldest stone quarry in Europe — hundreds of thousands of years of toolmakers came here for its quartzite.
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Písek
A former royal gold-panning town on the Otava, home to the oldest surviving stone bridge in Bohemia and a castle housing the Prácheňské museum.
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Plešivec
A 509 m basalt dome above the Elbe valley northwest of Litoměřice — a bouldery top with a wide viewpoint, protected as a natural monument.
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Plešivec (Brdy)
The sacred mountain of the Hřebeny — a 654 m summit ringed by one of Bohemia's largest late Bronze Age hillforts, with the Čertova kazatelna rock viewpoint over the Litavka valley.
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Ploskovice
A baroque summer chateau built 1716–1723 for Grand Duchess Anna Maria Franziska of Tuscany, later the retirement seat of abdicated emperor Ferdinand V — state-owned, with a free landscape park.
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Počátky
A small town on the Bohemian-Moravian divide with a tidy square, the poet Otokar Březina's birthplace, and the little woodland spa of Svatá Kateřina nearby.
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Pokličky
The signature rocks of Kokořínsko — sandstone stems capped by harder iron-bound "lids", standing over the Kokořínský důl valley with a stepped path up to them.
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Poradní skála
A rock viewpoint at about 440 m on the wooded slope north of Varhošť, looking straight down into the Labe valley — reached by a short unmarked side path.
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Prachová
The ruin of an Empire-style cemetery chapel of St Václav (1835) on the site of a village wiped out in the Hussite wars, between Encovany and Hrušovany.
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Praha (Brdy)
The second-highest summit of the Brdy at 862 m, wearing the white ball of the national weather radar on a 56 m tower — a forest summit with a landmark visible for half of Bohemia.
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Přerov nad Labem
A Polabí village holding the oldest open-air museum in the country — a green of timbered cottages collected from the region since 1895.
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Příbram
The mining town on the Brdy edge, crowned by Svatá Hora — Bohemia's foremost Marian pilgrimage site, an arcaded baroque complex above the rooftops.
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Radejčín
A 30 m telecom mast near Radejčín doubling as a lookout tower since 2009 — 97 steps to a platform facing Milešovka, Kletečná and the Krušné hory.
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Ralsko
A castle ruin on a 696 m cone above the former military area — a Markvartic-then-Vartenberk watch over the Lusatia road, and the highest castle hill of the region.
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Raná
A bare three-topped steppe ridge of 457 m — a national nature reserve with a ground-squirrel colony, and the historic cradle of Czech gliding, its slopes still full of paragliders.
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Ratboř
A village south-west of Kolín, documented since the 12th century around a medieval fort — known to gamers worldwide as Raborsch in Kingdom Come: Deliverance II.
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Říp
The national mountain of Bohemia — a lone basalt dome over the plain where legend puts Forefather Čech, crowned by the Romanesque rotunda of St George rebuilt in 1126.
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Ronov
A conical basalt hill (552 m) between Kravaře and Blíževedly, topped by the ruin of a 14th-century castle of the Ronovec family, burned down by Swedish troops in the Thirty Years' War.
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Roudnice nad Labem
An old Elbe town below Říp, dominated by the vast Baroque Lobkowicz chateau built over a Romanesque castle of the Prague bishops.
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Růžkovy Lhotice
An 18th-century baroque chateau where Bedřich Smetana spent childhood years from 1835 — now a Muzeum Podblanicka branch with the "Musical traditions of Podblanicko" exhibition.
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Schwarzenberg Tomb
The neo-Gothic burial chapel of the Schwarzenberg family (1874–1877) in a quiet park by the Svět pond outside Třeboň.
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Sedlo
The fourth-highest summit of the České středohoří — a 726 m volcanic plug with a sharp rocky ridge, protected as a nature reserve since 1968.
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Sedlo u Albrechtic
A 902 m summit of the Šumava foothills with a Celtic hillfort and a heptagonal timber lookout tower of 2009 — 138 steps to a circular panorama of the Šumava and the inland country.
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Skalka
A baroque pilgrimage complex above Mníšek pod Brdy — Dientzenhofer's chapel of St Mary Magdalene from 1693, a small monastery and a hermitage on a wooded ridge, with a refreshment cabin by the church.
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Sloup v Čechách
A 35 m sandstone block turned rock castle by the Ronovci in the 13th century, burned by the Swedes in 1639 and reborn as a grand hermitage — carved rooms and stairways through the whole rock.
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Smetanova Lhota
A village north of Písek with notable rural architecture — a chapel on the green, a log granary — and the Baroque Karlov castle at its edge.
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Sobotka
A small heritage town at the southern gate of the Český ráj, overlooked by the baroque Humprecht hunting lodge — hometown of the poet Fráňa Šrámek, with a railway station near the square.
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Solanská hora
A three-topped forest massif (Solanská hora 638 m, Dlouhý vrch 618 m, Třtín 601 m) with no marked trail — its open summit slope gives one of the finest views over the lower Ohře basin.
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Sovice
A lone 278 m hill above the Podřipsko plain — "the little Říp" — settled from the Neolithic to the early Middle Ages, with traces of ramparts on its summit plateau.
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Stará a Nová řeka
Jakub Krčín's 16th-century flood engineering turned nature reserve — the old Lužnice meanders feeding Rožmberk and the Nová řeka canal that carries its floods away to the Nežárka.
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Stará Hlína
A hamlet on the old Třeboň–Jindřichův Hradec road with two remarkable stone bridges — the 12-arch, 119-metre inundation bridge of 1799 by Josef Rosenauer, and the 1781 bridge over the Vítek pond.
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Starý Berštejn
A 15th-century castle ruin of the lords of Dubá on the basalt cone of Berkovský vrch (481 m) — a landmark visible across the Dubá country.
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Starý Žeberk
Scant remains of the highest-situated castle of the Krušné hory, on the Jezerka hill above the basin — built to guard the trade route from Saxony.
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Stekník
A rococo château standing alone in a sea of hop fields — five Italian garden terraces from the 1760s stepping down its southern slope, part of the Žatec UNESCO landscape.
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Štěpánovská hora
A basalt summit on the western edge of the České středohoří whose steep steppe slopes — protected since 1952 — carry feather grass and pasque flowers, with views west to Bořeň and the Krušné hory.
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Stradonka
One of the smallest lookout towers in the country — a six-metre wooden "Celtic watchtower" of 2009 on a real Celtic rampart above Stradonice, with Hazmburk and the western Středohoří lined up in front of it.
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Strašice
A former garrison village on the western Brdy edge — accommodation, food and a museum of the Central Brdy in the old barracks, the natural overnight before a crossing.
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Stvolínky
A village at the western end of the Holany ponds with a Renaissance-Baroque chateau, once the summer seat of the Litoměřice bishops. Railway stop on the Lovosice–Česká Lípa line.
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Sušice
The gateway town of the Šumava on the Otava — a long square, gold-panning history in the river, and the matchstick factory that once supplied half of Europe.
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Svatobor
The lookout mountain of Sušice — a 31.6 m tower of 1934 (182 wooden steps) with a year-round tourist hut at its foot, on a summit sacred to the pagan Slavs.
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Tábor (Český ráj)
A 678 m hill south of Lomnice nad Popelkou with the brick Tichánkova rozhledna (1911, 35 m, 145 steps) and the Hornychova chata tourist hut next to it — a circular view from the Krkonoše to the České středohoří.
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Telč
A UNESCO-listed Renaissance town between fishponds — one long square of arcades and painted gables, with the chateau closing its northern end.
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Tetín
A village on the cliffs above the Berounka where Bohemia's history begins — the Přemyslid stronghold where St Ludmila was murdered in 921, with three churches and castle remains on the edge of the gorge.
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Tisůvka
A ridge summit of the Žďárské vrchy (804 m) crowned by the Čertův kámen — a 58-metre-long, 15-metre-high rock wall split by a narrow gorge, a natural monument west of Cikháj.
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Točník
The grand castle Václav IV built for himself in 1398–1401 on the ridge above his older Žebrák — royal library, part of the royal treasure, and floor heating far ahead of its time.
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Třebenice
A little town under Košťálov in the fruit-growing belt of the middle hills, home of the Czech Garnet Museum — with rail access along the range's southern edge.
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Třebívlice
A wine village on the southern rim of the hills where Ulrika von Levetzow — Goethe's last love — lived and is buried; chateau exhibition and a working winery.
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Třeboň
The Renaissance capital of the South Bohemian pond country — walled town, Rožmberk chateau, peat spa and the Svět pond right under the ramparts.
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Tři křížky
Three stone crosses of 1849 on a bare serpentinite hill near Prameny — a national nature monument whose rock hosts an endemic chickweed found nowhere else on Earth.
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Trojhora
A 456 m triple-topped rock ridge near Třebušín — a short exposed scramble with wide views, dangerous when wet.
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Trosky
The symbol of the Český ráj — a ruined 14th-century castle whose two towers, Baba (47 m) and Panna (57 m), crown a pair of basalt volcanic plugs.
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Třtěnské stráně
A kilometre of white steppe slope above Třtěno — feather grass, sea pink and flax on bare marl, at its best in May bloom.
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Úštěk
A small medieval town on a sandstone spur at the edge of the České středohoří, with a long sloping square and the curious "bird houses" built onto the rocks.
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Valdštejn
The oldest castle of the Český ráj, founded around 1260 on sandstone blocks above Turnov — ancestral seat of the Waldstein family, reached over a stone bridge lined with baroque statues.
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Valdštejnská lodžie
Albrecht von Wallenstein's early-baroque garden pavilion outside Jičín (c. 1630), reached by his four-row lime avenue — the grand unfinished gesture of the duke's planned residence landscape.
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Valeč
A Baroque showpiece village on the south-eastern edge of the Doupovské hory — castle, terraced park with Braun-workshop statues, and the Holy Trinity church with its 1730 column.
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Varhošť
A 639 m summit above the right bank of the Labe with a steel lookout tower from 1973 — a full-circle view of the Středohoří from Hazmburk to Milešovka and the Krušné hory wall.
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Vchynice
The village under the south side of Lovoš that gave the Kinský family its name — Frederick the Great had his headquarters here during the Battle of Lovosice in 1756.
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Velemín
The service village on the southern side of Milešovka — bus connections from Prague, Lovosice, Litoměřice and Teplice make it the classic starting point for the highest hill of the range.
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Velký and Malý Tisý
A national nature reserve of eleven reed-fringed fishponds near Lomnice nad Lužnicí — one of the country's foremost bird reserves, protected since 1957.
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Velký Blaník
The legendary hill of the sleeping knights, topped with a wooden lookout tower above the treeline of a beech forest.
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Větruše
The excursion château of 1897 on the bluff above Ústí nad Labem — lookout tower, restaurant, mirror maze, and a funicular straight from the shopping mall below.
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Víťova rozhledna
A 21 m stone-and-timber lookout tower (2004) on a 616 m knoll near Náčkovice — a circle of northern Bohemia from Teplice and Ústí nad Labem to Ještěd.
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Vlašim
The main town of the Blaník country, with a château and a large English landscape park on the Blanice river — and the railway back towards Prague.
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Vlčí hora
An 892 m summit on the eastern Krušné hory plateau near Dlouhá Louka, wooded top on rolling upland moor and meadow country.
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Vlhošť
The highest hill of the CHKO Kokořínsko – Máchův kraj — a 614 m phonolite dome rising from sandstone country, protected as a nature reserve since 1998.
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Votický javor
A solitary sycamore on the old gallows hill south of Votice — planted, legend says, roots-up to prove a condemned woman's innocence; runner-up Tree of the Year 2005.
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Vráž
A spa village north of Písek — a neo-Gothic Lobkowicz chateau turned sanatorium in a landscape park, with traditional village architecture in Stará Vráž.
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Vrchotovy Janovice
A neo-gothic château in a celebrated English park — the home of Baroness Sidonie Nádherná, whose salon drew Rilke, Karl Kraus and Karel Čapek; now a National Museum site.
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Vroutek
A small town below the Doupovské hory whose Romanesque church of St James the Greater, built 1155–1200, is one of the best-preserved in the region — with a railway station for the trip home.
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Windsor
A Dutch windmill of 1843 turned neo-gothic hunting lodge — the romantic ruin by the D8 near Siřejovice, a cultural monument left to decay since the late 19th century.
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Zahrádky
A village south of Česká Lípa between the fire-gutted Renaissance chateau, the Peklo gorge of the Robečský potok and the Novozámecký pond bird reserve.
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Žákova hora
An 810 m summit of the Žďárské vrchy carrying a primeval beech forest protected since 1933 — with the Stříbrná studánka spring, one of the sources of the Svratka, on its slope.
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Žatec
The world capital of hops — a medieval town whose warehouses, oast houses and surrounding hop fields were inscribed as UNESCO World Heritage in 2023.
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Zbořený Kostelec
The "Demolished Kostelec" — a 13th-century royal castle above the Sázava, besieged and razed in 1467, with siege earthworks still visible and a fine view into the river valley.
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Žďár nad Sázavou
A Vysočina town grown from a 1252 Cistercian monastery — the monastery-turned-château of the Kinský family, with its Santini architecture, museum and café, is the reason to stop.
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Zebín
A 399 m basalt cone above Jičín, crowned by the little baroque chapel of St Mary Magdalene from 1700 — a short, steep climb with a full circle over the Jičín basin.
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Žebrák
A 13th-century royal castle ruin on a rock spur below its younger sibling Točník — rebuilt by Václav IV after the 1395 fire, abandoned when the king moved uphill.
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Zelená hora
Santini's pilgrimage church of St John of Nepomuk (1719–22) on a hill above Žďár nad Sázavou — a five-pointed star of baroque-gothic geometry, UNESCO-listed since 1994.
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Železnice
A little classicist town on the edge of the Český ráj near Jičín — heritage-zone square rebuilt after the 1788 fire, a local museum, and an 1866 battlefield trail around.
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Žižkova mohyla
A 14.7 m stone cairn topped by a Hussite chalice at Žižkovo Pole, raised in 1874 to Antonín Wiehl's design on the spot where Jan Žižka is said to have died in 1424.
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Zubrnice
A village-green village in the středohoří hills that doubles as the youngest open-air museum in the Czech Republic (1988) — timbered houses, a working general store, a water mill and a heritage railway station.
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Zvíkov
The "king of Czech castles" — a 13th-century royal castle on the spit where the Otava meets the Vltava, both rivers now the arms of the Orlík reservoir.