Kersko
village · Polabí
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.
Kersko is not a village but a forest with addresses: a grid of lanes laid through old pine woods in the 1920s and filled with cottages, one of which belonged to Bohumil Hrabal. His stories set here — filmed by Jiří Menzel as the Snowdrop Festival (Slavnosti sněženek) — fixed the place in the national imagination, cats, boar goulash and all. The Hájenka restaurant known from the film still serves, and the Svatojosefský pramen, a mineral spring under a wooden pavilion, still runs for anyone with a bottle.
Walking through is exactly as peaceful as it sounds: level sandy lanes under pines, gardens behind hedges, and the quiet broken mostly by woodpeckers. The Labe towpath and Sadská are within easy reach on foot.
Hikes passing here
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Hrabal's Kersko
A 24.2 km flat Polabí walk from Lysá nad Labem through Hrabal's Kersko — lunch at the Hájenka — and on via Poříčany to Český Brod.
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The Skanzen and the Kersko Pines
A 26.2 km flat spring walk through the Polabí — the Přerov nad Labem skanzen, a burnt chapel on its hill, and Hrabal's Kersko pines.