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.

Železnice, a few kilometres north of Jičín, burned almost completely in 1788 and rebuilt itself in one style — the classicist centre that resulted has been a protected heritage zone since 1990, and it gives the little town a composed, old-fashioned face rare at this scale. The local heritage museum keeps a period merchant’s shop and a log-cottage exhibition; the town even ran mud baths from 1904 on the reputation of its springs. The fields around saw the Battle of Jičín in June 1866, mapped today by an educational trail — worth knowing when you cross the monuments scattered through the countryside on the way into the Český ráj proper.