3. Tourist goals in the Czech Republic

1) What attracts tourist most?

2) What other places worth seeing? (describe it)

3) What speciality can the CR offer?

4) Death by tourism.

There are many places of interest in the Czech republic.

South Bohemia

- gently rolling country

- unspoilt countryside

- forest suitable for cycling

- castles, town reserve, ponds

- beautiful villages

South Moravia

- vineyards, vine cellers

- dams

- beautiful skyline – Mikulov, Lednice, Valtice

- Pavlovské vrchy, Pálava

- Many cycle path

Moravian Karst

- Made of limestone, underground stream, caves with stalagnite, stalagtitis, abyss

The Moravian Karst is a wilderness region north of Brno. The area is limestone filled with caves. In some places the domes of the caves have collapsed, making sinkholes.

Our visit was to an area that is now a national park and includes the Macocha Abyss, a large sinkhole more than 400 feet deep. The park also features a cave with an underground river large enough for a boats

 - The Macocha Abyss

 The world-famous Macocha Abyss, 138.7 metres deep, with opened riverbed of the  undeground river Punkva in the bottom. There are two observation platforms that enable    visitors to look into the deeps of the abyss.

  - The Punkva Caves

 Visitors walk through the labyrinth of mighty underground spaces and corridors as far as     the bottom of the world-famous Macocha (= Stepmother) Abyss. The foot walk is followed  by a motorboat ride along the Punkva underground river. The ride includes the visit to the  Masaryk Dome, one of the most beautiful caves of the Moravian Karst.

Czech Karst

- limestone, rare plants, animals

- lovely countryside

- to practise rock climbing

- Koněpruské caves

Karlštejn

- Holyrood chapel  – decorated with semiprecious stone

- paintings by Mistr Theodoric

- rebuilt in 20th century – the castle was given present looks by architect Mohr

- J.Vrchlický – Night at Karlštejn

- It was forbidden fot women (female servant were there)

- In dguise

- was founded by Charles IV. Mainly as a treasury for the crown jewels but it aslo became one of his favourite country retreats

- the original building was started in 1348 and finished in 1367

- at first it was superrised the Frenchmen, Matthew Arras but later by Peter             Parler

- there is the Chapel of St. Catherins in the castle, which was used privately by Charles

- another chapel in the Great tower where the crow jewels are relies of the crucifixion were kept but this is not open to the public now

- it also contained 127 panels paited by the 14 th century Master Theodoric but many of them were damaged

- quite interesting is what Charles did while he stayed here – women were forbidden and the other strange thing is that it seems Charles sometimes liked to shut himself completely away from other people (then some important papers had to be passes him through a hole in the wall)

-  most people only go to Karlštejn to see the castle. It is also a small town

- there are hundreds of small shops and stalls

High Gothic castle founded in 1348, which has a unique position among Czech castles. It was built by Czech King and Roman Emperor Charles IV as a place for safekeeping of the royal treasures, especially Charles's collection of holy relics and the coronation jewels of the Roman Empire.

The first stay of Charles IV in the castle is documented in 1355 when he came to supervise the building works as well as the decoration of interiors, especially the castle chapels. The construction of the castle was finished in 1365 when the Chapel of the Holy Cross situated in the Great tower was consecrated. At the outbreak of the Hussite wars the castle became the place for safekeeping of the Czech coronation jewels, which were kept here, with the exception of several short-time breaks, for nearly 200 years.

The castle was reconstructed in late Gothic style after 1480 and in Renaissance style in the last quarter of the 16th century. The present appearance of the castle comes from the last reconstruction, which was carried out in the purist neo-Gothic style by architect Josef Mocker at the end of the 19th century. Very impressive is the original step-like order of buildings. From the Well tower and Burgrave's palace located as the lowest you walk up to the majestic five-storied Imperial palace and further up towards the Marian tower. And finally at the top of the headland stands the monumental 60m high and separately fortified Great tower.

Czech paradies

- a beauty spot, region of natural beauty

- small triangl area in the north east Bohemia

- comprising some beautiful rock formation Prachovské skály – sunstone

- rock climbing

- historical monuments

- well known is ruined castle Ruins whose skyline dominates the region

- mountain Kozákov which appears in many legends and where appears semi precious or precious stone , Czech pyrop (český granát) – dark red. Makes lovely jewellery

- Turnov – you can vistit museum of presures stone

- Area is suitable for walking, biking

- Owercrowded in summer

Czech Saxon Switzerland

- undefended border

- rock formation like Prachčiská gate

- clean streams like Kamneice, Strinice

- goes on Saxony – Table mountains

- you shouldn´t ommit on your way bautiful rock formation (basaltic crystal) near Kamenický Šenov form lovely outcrop – unique Panská skála

Český Krumlov

- town loocated in South Bohemia, it has only 15000 inhabitans

- one of the most havily visited towns in the Czech Republic

- some world famous people have visited the town – Queen of Denmark, Sweden king, Prince Charles

- in 1992 was included on the UNESCO list of worldwide cultural heritage

- this town has a long history:

- it was the seat of several important and well known families, for example Vítek family, the Rozembergs, the Eggenbergs and the Schwarzenbergs

- there is more than hundred historical buildings

- hundreds of buildings were built at the beginning of the fifteen century, when the town receive the privileges of a royal town

- in 1989 the town was opened up to broad interest from home and abrouad

- the town has many monuments ant sights to see

- The state Castle and Chateau is the second largest in the CR after Prague

- Český Krumlov offers a wide range of activities, especially for summer tourists

- there is a revolving auditorium ? in the grounds of the chateau from 17th century

- ancient town brewery was changed into the Egon Schiele International Cultural Centre where many exhibitions are held

- every June people can také part in the Five-Petalled Rose Celebrations – people are dressed in mediaeval costumes

- music festivals – in August the International Music festival of clasical music takes place in town

- about 200 concerts a year are offered to visitors

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The Krkonoše mountains

- the highest mountain in the Czech Republic is Sněžka in the Kkonoše mountains

- are the most frequented mountain range both in summer and in winter

- the three main resorts are Špindlerův mlýn, Pec pod Sněžkou and Harrachov

- they offer the best equipped cable - ways and skitowns

- in view of its exceptional nature, the Krkonoše national park was created in 1963, the park administration has its headquarters in the town of Vrchlabí, where you can aslo visit the intresting Krkonoše museum, which gives a picture of the history and life in the mountains, you can also see Krakonoš there (he is a legendary character from the Krkonoše mountain)

- most of the national park is covered in woodland, especially fir trees, which were planted in the 19th century

- the highest slopes of the mountains suffered badly from acid rains and damagingg air flows in the 1980s

- the Krkonoše mounatains have a wealth of wild animals like red deer and grouse (the last bear was killed in 1726)

- the oldest reports of the Krkonoše mountains date from the 15th century

- two hundred years later Sněžka and the spring of the Labe were pilgrim destination

- from early 19th century the mountains chalets used by shepherds were adapted to provide accommodation and food for visitors

- the first skier appeared there in 1894 and later in 1934 the Mountain rescue Service was set up

- nowdays the Krkonoše Mountains have become the most important area for walking tours and skiing in the CR

- there are good conditions there for both down hill skiing and crosscountry skiing

- Harachov  – is very closed to the Polish border

- in the 17 th century a greenhouse was established there

- on the slopes of Čertova hora there are skiing facilities with ski   jumps

- the Mammoth tower is one of the six largest in the world for   flights on skis

- Špindlerův mlýn  - a mountain settlement of St Peter, is mentioned as early as 16th    century

 - here you find two important skiing centres – the first one is                                                  Pláně and the second is Medvědín (both are equipped with high                                                  capacity seat-lifts

 - Pec pod Sněžkou - is the central resort of the Krkonoše mountains

 - directly above Pec the highest mountain in our Republic                                                  Sněžka rises, it can be reached on foot or by seat lift rises,                                                  when you get there you will have a spectacular view of                                                  Bohemia adn Poland

Spa – helath resorts – Karlovy Vary is a famous spa

What speciality can the CR offer?

opened to public (our countryside)

- roam freely through the countryside

- you are even navigated by unique system of touris markings (starting in the 19th century-Rieger, Mácha, when (it became fashionable to go into a country in the middle, upper cless families) which is said to be best in the world

- later the Czech touris assosiation took over the relay and created on elaborant (vypracovaný) systém of marked rotes (cesta) suitable for walking

- what makes the differences is that unlike in west Europian countries the agricultural and forested areas are not forbidden for the public to enter

- the phenomena of Czech čundrák is the direct resolt of these favourable contitions and is popular mainly with young people

- now the situation is changed to worse