A visit to historic Lanškroun, with an optional extension to the fishpond area: 2 km – 11 km

• Lanškroun is one of several picturesque historic towns located near the Orlík mountains in north eastern Bohemia. The town has an interesting history as well as some fine Renaissance architecture. It is definitely worth a stop to explore the center, if travelling in the area. For a longer walk there is an attractive fishpond area just outside town, which has become a protected nature area, with several marked trails.
• Lanškroun dates back at least to the mid 13th century when it was established as a royal border town but its most famous period was during the ownership of the Pernštejn noble house. The Pernštejns gave the town (and chateau) its Renaissance character. A further period of feudal ownership followed under the Liechtenstein family, who owned vast areas of the country from the 17th century onwards.
• The town’s most famous native was Jan Marcus Marci, the 17th century physician, mathematician and physicist. Marci is credited with important contributions in spectroscopy studies and was an influence on Newton and Boyle. The town’s main square, dominated by the beautiful Renaissance town hall constructed by the Pernštejns in 1581/82, is named after Marci. He is considered one of the last great Czech ‘polymaths’.
• The historic center of town is really quite small: mostly focused on the main square and castle area. It is less than a one km circuit. There are, however, a couple of excellent refreshment spots to extend the trip. One is the Kavárna La Caffé in a lovely historic building (map point 4). The other is Esko bistro (map point 5) just off the main square. Both are Hejlík recommendations.
• To extend the walk beyond the town center, consider strolling out to the historic fishpond complex, to the northwest of town. A series of six fish ponds were originally created in the 15th century along the Ostrovský stream, to serve the town. The pond area today has been turned into an attractive recreation area, including a 5 km nature trail circling four of the ponds. The trail is equipped with Czech language information boards. Note that the pond area is also an attractive location in summer and autumn for swarms of mosquitoes…come suitably prepared with spray!
• The route shown in the map below follows the (yellow) marked hiking trail to and from town to meet the first pond after 1 km. An alternative is to take the bus out to the main pond area (bus stop at map point 12). The full nature trail has sections on forest paths that are not ideal for strollers, but there is a shorter wheelchair access version that is well marked. If undertaking the full walk, to and from town a possible stop for refreshments is the popular LABurger restaurant in the camping area beside the largest pond (map point 6).

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

• Lanškroun has good regional bus and train connections, but most visitors will probably be driving in the area. There is extensive paid parking in the main square
• The route in the the historical center does not really need directions as it basically is just the main square and castle-monasterycomplex areas, which are linked by side streets
• For the walk out to the fishpond area, take the YELLOW trail from the main square heading towards Lanškroun – koupaliště
• The circular nature trail (marked with green-white diagonal stripe markers) can be picked up at the Obora – tábor junction (map point 9) some 3 km out of town