*Easy walks to the Hvězda pilgrimage chapel and nearby Broumov Walls viewpoints: 2 km*

• The Hvězda pilgrimage chapel is one of the most popular destinations in the beautiful Broumovko region in East Bohemia. Located at an altitude of 671m, directly on the Broumov Walls ridge line, the chapel was built in in 1731-1733 by the famous Czech Baroque architect Kilián Ignác Dientzenhofer, who also designed the nearby magnificent Broumov monastery. The chapel has a five-pointed star design but is actually circular on the inside.
• The chapel is easily reached from a paid parking area just 300m down the track. A further 300m down the road there is a bus stop with occasional connections to the nearby town of Police nad Metují.
• Behind the chapel there is a superb viewpoint, which is accessed via a stone bridge. Just 100m from the chapel is the well-known Chata Hvězda, an Alpine style wooden lodge built in the 19th century and today owned by the Benedictine order (who also own the Broumov monastery). The Chata operates as a restaurant and has a terrace with a view even better than the one from the behind the chapel.
• The chapel, viewpoint and Chata can all be accessed with a stroller from the car park/bus stop. If wanting to extend the walk slightly, there are other viewpoints worth visiting, within close reach of the chapel (although the paths are not suitable for a stroller).
• Just past the Chata on the BLUE trail at map point 5 there is an even better variant of the chapel view (accessed by squeezing through two sandstone rock boulders). However, by far the best view along the whole of Broumov Walls ridge (at least in this author’s opinion) is the Skalní divadlo panorama, showcasing the magnificent Broumovsko sandstone rock towers (map point 6). There are a number of standalone sandstone rocks along the trail which have individual names (eg the Cat rock – see picture below).
• The suggested loop shown in the map below is less than 2 km long, and is not a difficult trail, although there are a couple of rock step sections.

Note: click ‘Show on map’ 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

• From the car park, just walk up the road to reach the chapel in 300m.The Chata restaurant and terrace are found 100m to the left
• To extend the walk with a visit to the Skalní divadlo viewpoint, follow the RED trail in the direction of Supí hnízdo. The signpost to the viewpoint is reached after 700m
• For a nice simple loop back to the car park/bus stop, sontinue on the RED trail for a further 200m to the Nad Kovářovou roklí junction and there turn right onto the RED trail heading towards Hlavňov
• After 300m reach the U Kovárny junction and there turn right onto the GREEN trail which leads directly back to the Hvězda chapel area in 600m