Hvězda

A tiny hamlet of timber-framed houses at the western foot of Vlhošť, founded in 1676 by the bishop of Litoměřice.

Hvězda is a handful of houses in the woods below Vlhošť, founded in 1676 by the Litoměřice bishop Jaroslav Ignác Šternberk — the German name Sterndorf and today’s Czech one both come from the star in the Šternberk coat of arms. What makes it worth walking through is the architecture: sturdy timber-framed and half-timbered houses typical of the Kokořínsko region, plus a small chapel of St James. The hamlet sits on the edge of the Roverské skály sandstone labyrinth, and paths towards the Vlhošť summit start here.

On the rocks above the hamlet, next to the Jehla pinnacle, lie the scant remains of a nameless 13th-century watch castle — ditches, earthworks and a few fragments of masonry. It was mostly timber-built and is thought to have guarded the approaches for nearby Ronov; today it takes a keen eye to read it in the terrain.