The Fabián educational trail in the forest landscape around Řevnice: 10 km

• Řevnice is a popular (and increasingly up-market) town located on the Berounka river just 10 km or so to the southwest of Prague. The town dates from the 13th century and initially became prosperous as a stopping point on one of the medieval ‘golden roads’ that crossed Bohemia from Germany in the west.
• As a Catholic church property, the town suffered significantly during the 15th century Hussite Wars and at the hands of the invading Swedish army in the 17th century Thirty Years War. It was not until the building the the Prague-Vienna railway towards the end of the 19th century that the town’s fortunes were revived, when a station was built. The consequence was an influx of wealthy residents who built fine Art Nouveau homes – several of which line the town’s quiet residential streets.
• Today, the town is known by walkers as one of the gateways to the Brdy highland area. In fact, the trails ascend into the Hřebeny nature area, which is slightly separate from the main Brdy hills. Hřebeny has a slightly different character to the main Brdy area – the forests are more mixed and the rocky outcrops more evident. It is an excellent walking area, as the number of walks listed under the ‘Hřebeny’ sub regional category hopefully demonstrates.
• A pleasant introduction to the area around Řevnice and the forest area of Hřebeny can be gained by following a 10 km signposted educational trail, which starts and finishes in the town. The trail is named after Fabián, the spirit of a legendary knight who had a castle in the hills. Fabián’s restless ghost is today believed to wander the slopes of Velká Baba, at the far end of the Hřebeny ridge.
• Řevnice’s Fabián trail is, however, more concerned with the history of the town and the natural landscape of the Hřebeny area than medieval ghost stories, but it is still an attractive trail which partly follows forest footpaths and partly quiet town streets. It starts and finishes at the train station. The trail has no difficult or very steep sections and involves just over 200m of height to ascend-descend. For refreshments, try the excellent Pivovar Řevnice, located 400m before the end of the trail (map point 8).

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

Directions

• Starting at the train station (where there is extensive parking – usually full during week days) join the GREEN hiking trail heading towards Řevnický les
• After 150m in the main square, leave the GREEN trail a cross the road heading down Legíi street
• The educational trail is marked with signposts rather than the more normal green-white diagonal stripe markers on trees, lampposts etc. It is therefore recommended to follow the route using the mapz.com phone application of a good paper map, as the education trail joins and leaves a number of marked hiking trails at different points
• The Fabián trail also overlaps with the Burešova cesta in the forest section, which can appear confusing as there are then two sets of information boards!