Rotštejn castle ruin

Rock area Klokočí consist of an asymmetrical ridge of Late Cretaceous sandstone blocks about 1600 m long, with a large number of variously sized cavities. The vegetation includes pine forest with fragments of beech. The largest sandstone cave of Bohemian Paradise called Postojna is located here, in which the traces of the oldest settlements in the area were found. Rocky outcrops of Klokočí offer many attractive lookouts with magnificent panoramic views of the northern and south-eastern part of the Bohemian Paradise including Kozákov hill. The ruins of the castle Rotštejn lies towards the southern edge of Klokočské rocks.

Ridge and plateau with Besedice rocks together with downslope to the Jizera consists of two levels of rock walls, where the rock mazes Kalich and Chléviště can be found. There is a cave of Vaclav Sadovsky from Sloupno and many beautiful lookouts to view the valley of Maloskalsko. The rock block Kalich lies in the middle of five rocky canyons and hides a rocky altar with an engraved cup and year 1634. There is an extract from The Testament of Comenius, verses from The Bible and verses of a Franciscan monk J. Vitásek inscribed in the stone. An educative trail, which introduces the most important places, goes through the area.

Zbiroh castle was founded in the early 14th century high above the village Rakousy, where the Jizera river creates a great meander. Zbiroh is noticed in the written documents of king Wenceslas IV., when it belonged to a prominent bohemian magnate Markvart of Wartenberg. During the long years of anarchy and chaos in the country after the Hussite wars, the castle Zbiroh along with other castles in this area become the outpost for robbers and bandit troops, therefore the army demolished it in 1442 and about 1458 is mentioned already as abandoned. Only remnants of walls and vaults carved into the rock remains us of the former castle today.

Today's Chateau Hrubý Rohozec was founded as a Gothic castle around 1280. Later it was architecturally modified in the Renaissance, Baroque, and Empire style, which is now the most noticeable. Two libraries, dining room and green salon have been preserved with the original equipment to present date. The chateau exposition is arranged in cooperation with the Prague Museum of Decorative Arts. The castle is surrounded by park with a collection of stone masonry of the Romantic period.

Horizontal Cretaceous sandstones were erected to almost vertical position by tectonic activity in Tertiary Period. Significant ridge with its length of 1 km is towering above Malá Skála village and it is divided into 20 rock towers, some of which reach heights of up to 80 m. Coarse-grained and partially conglomerated sandstones are variously siliphicated and ferruginizated along the fault plane. The occurrence of tectonic mirrors, strongly siliphicated tectonic ribs and a dense grid of quartz veins is unique. Suché rock, also called Cantor´s organ, are a popular tourist destination, especially among rock climbers.

The oldest castle in the Bohemian Paradise was built around the 1260. Its residential function ended in late 15th century and the castle was abandoned. Ruined castle raised to a new glory with the efforts of Wallenstein family, who rebuilt it into a remarkable pilgrimage site with a unique genius loci in the 18th century. The new owners of Lex of Aehrenthal made castle available to the public and they finished the romantic adaptations of old residence into famous landmark in the 19th century.