A walk to the ruins of Dívčí hrady and Děvín hill from Pavlov – 8 km (extendable)

• Děvín (550m) is the highest point in the Pavlov hills, a rocky limestone ridge located in the Protected Landscape Area of Pálava. Although not high, the peak offers excellent views over the lowland area of southern Moravia, the reservoir of Nové Mlýny and across the border into Austria.
• At the northern edge of the ridge lies the impressive ruins of the 13th century Gothic castle of Dívčí hrady, which got its name from a legend about three girls who were apparently petrified and became part of the summit cliffs.
• The suggested route starts in the attractive village of Pavlov which is famous for its wineries and ascends directly to the castle ruins via the northern edge of Děvín hill. The path then traverses the ridge line before descending the southern flank and circling back to Pavlov through the forest and then vineyard areas.
• The 7.6 km route is short but challenging, with some steeper rocky footpaths and involves 400m of height to climb-descend. For refreshment, options in the village of Pavlov, including a number of wineries offering tastings as well as light snacks. One of the nicest is the Vinařství Paulus, which is close to the start of the ascent route to the castle ruins (shown as map point 2 below).
• The Děvín route can be extended by up to 5 km by adding the archaeological trail and circuit through the village of Dolní Věstonice, famous for its paleolithic sites of mammoth hunters. The standalone mammoth hunter walk is described here. This starts at the archaeological museum just below Pavlov village.

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

• Start in the center of the village of Pavlov (there are bus connections here and to the village of Dolní Věstonice from Mikulov and Břeclav and various paid parking areas)
• From the village center, join the GREEN trail in the direction of Dívčí hrady
• The trail initially passes several wineries and then climbs steeply to reach the Dívčí hrady junction after 1.5 km
• Take the 100m diversion trail (red markers) to visit the higher section of ruins with the best views and then return back to the main trail junction
• At the trail junction, take the RED trail in the direction of Pod Děvínem
• After 1.3 km reach the Děvín trail junction. To the left is a short diversion to a viewpoint. To the right, the GREEN trail leads to the summit of the hill with its TV transmitter
• Take the GREEN trail to right, traverse the summit and continue gently downhill to return back to the RED trail at the Pod Děvínem junction
• Continue down the RED trail for 800m to reach the junction of Soutěska. Here, turn left onto the GREEN trail in the direction of Nad schody
• After a 1.6 km section of path through the forest, reach the trail junction of Nad schody and here turn right onto the YELLOW trail and descend quite steeply towards Pavlov village
• The village center is reached after 1.5 km