The Cyril & Methodius trail, stage 14: from Bystřice nad Pernštejnem to Tišnov – 32 km to 37 km

The Cyril & Methodius route is a series of interlinked hiking trails connected with the life and mission of the 9th century Byzantine missionaries, Saints Cyril and Methodius. The route was established by the Council of Europe in 2021 and now comprises over 5,000 km of trails, spanning 10 countries. The Saints – who were brothers – are most famous for helping bring Christianity to the Slavic lands. They are most closely associated with the Great Moravian Empire, where Methodius became the first Archbishop.
The Czech Republic has six different Cyril & Methodius trails, all of which end at the pilgrimage site of Velehrad, in the eastern Moravian Zlín region. Velehrad was (in folk tradition) the seat of Methodius after he became archbishop. It is also the site of Moravia’s first Cistercian monastery. The Bohemian-Moravian trail runs for approximately 420 km between the site of the first Bohemian church, at Levý Hradec and Velehrad.
The 14th stage of the Bohemian-Moravian trail is one of the best and, at the same time, one of the worst. It is great because of the variety of sites and landscape along the way. It is bad because it is simply too long. Walkers on this stage – if undertaken as the official route suggests – will not have the time to properly explore the different places along the way. This includes visiting the remarkable Gothic castle of Pernštejn, which adds a further 5 km to an already very long trip.
Accordingly, this author’s preference would be to split the 14th stage of the journey into two parts. The first segment would start at Bystřice nad Pernštejnem and finish in Nedvědice, including a loop to visit Pernštejn castle. This is a 17 km trip. The second leg would start in Nedvědice and finish in Tišnov, a 20 km trip which includes a stop at the remarkable Porta Coeli monastery.
The second leg is fully described in the Nedvědice-Tišnov walk, so is not repeated here. The first leg begins at Bystřice station and follows a quiet public road into the hills that border the Svratka river valley all the way to Nedvědice. There are some good views along the way (as shown in the header photo) but otherwise there are no significant sights along the way, other than those in Bystřice itself (as described in the Stage 13 walk). From Nedvědice, the 5 km loop to see Pernštejn can be undertaken.
For completeness, the route map for the official 32 km stage (excluding the Pernštejn visit) is shown in the map below. This involves 430m of ascent and 740m of descent. Refreshment options on this trip are included in the write ups of Stage 13 and the Nedvědice-Tišnov walk.

Note: click ‘Show on Mapy.com’ to go to a full screen version of the route directly on the mapy.com site. This can be used for on line navigation, saved or exported as a GPX file.

Directions

Starting at Bystřice train station, head into town along the RED trail and in the town center pick up the BLUE trail heading towards Tišnov
In Nedvědice join the RED trail heading towards Tišnov
After 6 km, in Doubravník, join the GREEN trail heading towards Borač, which is reached after 4 km
In Borač, rejoin the RED trail heading towards Tišnov
After 1 km there is an option to leave the RED trail for a section and join the cycle path which runs beside the rail line – this is the easier option and is shown in the map above
Continue on the RED trail as far as the Besének junction and there join the GREEN trail heading towards Předklášteří to visit the Porta coeli Convent
From the monastery, follow the BLUE trail to reach the Tišnov train station after 2.6 km