Escape the city to Kunratický les: a 9 km tour around Václav IV’s hunting forest

• On 30 July 1419 the 58 year old King Václav (Wenceslas) IV of Bohemia was relaxing in his castle, possibly just returned from a hunting expedition in the vast forest area surrounding his newest fortress, located in Kuntratice just a few kilometers from the Prague city walls. A messenger arrived with the news that seven of Prague’s Catholic town counsellors had been thrown from the windows of the New Town Hall on Charles Square and killed by an angry mob, followers of the martyred Christian reformer Jan Hus. This was the first of the infamous Prague ‘defenestrations’ and was the trigger that began the Hussite Wars.
• Seventeen days later, Václav IV was dead, apparently of a stroke brought on by the shocking news. The forty year rule of the Bohemian king, nicknamed ‘the idle’, was over. By the end of the following year the castle of Kuntratice, the last of the Prague fortresses still in royalist hands, was under siege by the Hussites. By early 1421 the castle had been taken, plundered and its defenses torn down. It was never to be restored again.
• Today, the ruins of Kunratice castle sit on a steep-sided promontory, overlooking the Kunratický stream, still deep within the ancient hunting forest. The steep paths up to the castle ruins host a famous annual cross country race every November (as well as several hundred thousand visitors who escape the city every year to stroll, jog or cycle through one of Prague’s largest park areas).
• Many footpaths cross the 300ha forest area, which can be quickly reached by public transport from Prague center. This is a mixed forest of deciduous and evergreen trees, including some rare copses of original oak and beach trees. There is even a herd of muflon (wild sheep) that live in the forest – they were introduced into the forest in the 1970’s.
• The closest access point is the Roztyly metro station and from there a 9km walk circles the entire forest, visiting the castle ruins and returning alongside the attractive Kunratický stream, mostly on easy forest paths. The trails are suitable for walkers with strollers – except the section to the castle, which can easily be avoided (see directions below).
• There are a number of good restaurants and refreshment spots with outside seating areas located within the forest area. These are noted in the directions below and marked on the map.

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 the walk at the Roztyly metro station and join the BLUE/YELLOW hiking trails that begin immediately outside the metro station
• The circular walk around the forest can be done in either direction – clockwise following first the YELLOW trail and then joining the BLUE trail at the castle ruins for the return journey, or anticlockwise by taking the BLUE trail to the castle and the YELLOW trail back
• If planning to stop for refreshments/lunch at one of the forest restaurants then this might influence which direction to take. If planning to stop at the grill restaurant Za větrem (point 10 on the map) towards the end of the walk, then take the anticlockwise route. If wanting to finish with the simple refreshments available at the Srub Gizela log cabin (point 2 on the map) then take the route clockwise. The two other marked restaurants (U Krále Václava IV and Na Tý louce zelený) both of which have summer terraces are on the far side of the park so reached broadly half way round in either direction
• If walking with a stroller and preferring to avoid the steep and narrow footpath leading up (or down from) the castle ruins to the Kunratický stream, then take the GREEN trail which runs between the Kunratický les signpost (point 4 on the map) and the U Krále Václava IV signpost (point 7)