Tips for the Jizera Moutains, Czech Republic

The Jizera Mountains

A couple of tips for places to visit and things to see, accompanied by a few photos, in the Jizera Mountains

You may have heard that in the Czech Republic you can run into mountains. You may also be aware that we have mountains all along the border with Germany, Slovakia, and also almost whole Poland and Austria. If you have ever heard about nice Czechia’s places, then names such as Bohemian Switzerland, Bohemian Paradise or the Krkonoše mountains (Giant Mountains) may sound familiar to you. But I guess not many of you ever heard of the Jizera mountains – the mountains range located around 100 km north of Prague, streching around the cities of Liberece and Jablonec. One of the less known, yet very nice places.

Through the Region of Jára Cimrman

To begin with, I’m pretty sure you have probably never heard of Jára Cimrman. He is a very popular person in Czechia, yet he is just a fictional character 🙂 There are, however, places named after him, he has a couple of statues, there is his museum. And a region indeed. Once I went to explore this region more and run into a nice and very interesting trail.

Here is one of the suggested trail

https://mapy.cz/s/2xqnA

You can take a bus from Prague-Černý Most and go to Tanvald, from where you continue for a few minutes by train to Kořenov train station. If you don’t want to change for the train, alternatively you can also stay on the bus and go all the way to Kořenov, but part of the Kořenov train serves as a musem of cog-wheel trains, as this track is famous for being the only rack railway in the Czech Republic. You can enjoy a nice train ride if you continue to Harrachov, where the train starts acsending, or up to Sklarzska Poreba in Poland, respectively.

Once you get to Kořenov, whether you just got off the bus there, or came from the train station, note the Tesařov Chapel.

On the way to the Štěpánka lookout tower, I recommend to pass by a bunker that is now open for public as an exposition of light forticitacion. The only disadvantage is that its ran by a retired guy, whos is really nice, but doesn’t speak English so you will need someone to translate it for you. Afterwords you just need a few more hundreds of meters to reach the peak called Hvězda.

Before you start descending to the Jára Cimrman’s village – Příchovice – you can take around 1 km long walk to Bílá skála, a panorama point. After enjoying the view, you come back to the road leading down to the village of Přichovice. There is a few restaurants if you feel its time for some lunch. In Příchovice, you can also find another lookout tower, named after the famous Jára Cimrman, there is also a geopark and childrens playgroud, and his musem full of interesting, ridicolous Cimrman’s inventions.

Finally, you get back on the yellow trail which brings you donw to Velké Hamry. If you still have some time left and still feel like it, you can visit the Musem of socialist vehicles in Velké Hamry. The museum is open only to 4 pm though.