Suché 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.

Rock castle Vranov also known as Pantheon with its length of almost 400 m is considered the most complicated rock castle in Bohemia. The form of the castle was determined by the sandstone cliffs, in which it was built before 1425. It was abandoned during the 16th century. Later modifications transformed the ruins of the castle into a romantic monument available to public called the Pantheon. Reconstruction was completed in summer 1826, when a chapel was built high above the Jizera valley.

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.

The sandstone plateau located between the villages Borek, Křížky, Záborčí, and Voděrady is divided by shallow valleys and canyons into several parts, which are bordered around the edges by rock outcrops. One marked trail leads from the town Turnov around Dlask farm, another one leads roughly north-south direction along the axis of the rocky area. The lookouts showing Suché rocks, castle Frýdštejn, and the Jizera valley are excellent here. The average height of the rocks is around 10 m. Rock wall in Hradek exceptionally reach up to 20 m. Deep overhangs are common at the foot of the rocks. Suitable conditions for the emergence of rock resembling the shape of mushrooms are to be found in central and southern parts of the rocks.

Well-preserved ruins of the castle rises above the valley of the Jizera River, dominated by the castle's highest tower which is its best conserved part. It is 15 m high with a diameter of 9 m and its walls are 2 m thick. Frýdštejn was built during the 14th century. A number of small rooms, including a chapel, was carved directly into the rock. The owners of the castle superseded several times. The castle has lost its function after the sale in 1556, and it has been uninhabited since the late 16th century. Today the castle is owned by the municipality of Frýdštejn.

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.