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.

Zahrádky packs three very different landmarks into walking distance of each other. Above the village stands the chateau — built 1547–1550 and one of the older Renaissance seats in northern Bohemia — which burned out in January 2003; the shell is being slowly restored and is viewed from outside. Downstream begins Peklo, the sandstone gorge of the Robečský potok that once served as the chateau’s landscape park and is now a national nature monument, famous for carpets of spring snowflake in March. And west of the village spreads the Novozámecký rybník, a national nature reserve of reed beds and waterbirds, its outlet cut as a channel through the rock centuries ago.

The village lies on the walking routes between Česká Lípa, the Holany ponds and the Kokořínsko plateau, with a railway stop nearby.