Jezeří Above the Mines

A 31.6 km point-to-point hike along the Krušné hory scarp from Jirkov over Jedlová and Starý Žeberk to the Jezeří chateau and Litvínov.

One steep climb early in the day buys you the rest of it along the rim, walking the strange, strong landscape where beech-forested mountainside and open-cast mine face each other directly. Both ends sit on the railway — in at the Jirkov stop, out at Litvínov.

From Jirkov the route follows the foothills north past the Podkrušnohorský přivaděč water channel to Vysoká Pec, where the real work begins: the ascent of Jedlová is steep and sustained, up through beech woods strewn with rock towers. Over the top the route runs east along the rim to Starý Žeberk on the Jezerka cone — manage your expectations, almost nothing of the castle remains — and on towards Jezeří. By the lane down to Černice stand the ruins of the Hraběcí kaple, the former Lobkowicz burial chapel at the very edge of the mine, and this fragment does look the part.

Jezeří itself is the day’s centrepiece: the Baroque chateau on the slope with the ČSA pit yawning below. From there the route descends through Horní Jiřetín and follows the foot of the mountains to Litvínov and its railway station.