An easy circular walk in the Jesiníky foothills, from Janovice chateau to the Sphinx stone: 10 km

• Janovice is a small village in the foothills of the Jeseníky mountains, with a surprisingly large chateau whose history dates back to the 13th century. Its most recent noble owners were the Harrach family, most notably Count František Harrach. It was Harrach´s car that was used to transport the heir to the Austro Hungarian throne, Franz Ferdinand, through the streets of Sarajevo on 28 June 1914. Count Harrach was accompanying the Austrian archduke on his ill-fated trip. The assassination of Franz Ferdinand directly led to the outbreak of World War I.
• The chateau has been in State hands since 1945. Although the exterior still needs considerable attention, the interior has been opened to public tours, where the public and private rooms of the Harrach family have been impressively restored to their appearance in the early 20th century.
• A visit to the chateau (and small park area) can be combined with a easy circular walk in the nearby hills. A popular destination in those hills is the curious natural rock feature which resembles a sphinx (at least sufficiently to receive this name – it is probably more striking when the trees have no leaves!). There is a tourist shelter nearby. The suggested route enjoys some nice views of the surrounding hills on the gentle downhill path.
• The route is on good forest paths and open gravel tracks across the fields. There is less than 200m of height to ascend/descend over the 10 km circuit. For refreshments, a small snack bar is usually available in the chateau park at the same times that the chateau is open for tours.

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

• From the chateau, join the YELLOW trail heading towards Rabštejn
• After 3.8 km, as the main path bends to the right at map point 4, take the left fork in the trail, which leads to the sphinx rock after 300m
• Return back to the main YELLOW trail and continue for a further 1.3 km on the YELLOW trail until reaching the Pod Výhledy juntion
• At the junction, take the unmarked farm track to the right side. This leads directly back to Janovice after 4.2 km