A spring-time visit to the park area at the Lány Presidential chateau: 4 km

• Spring is probably the nicest time to visit the park area at Lány chateau. The large park area has many mature trees, extensive lawn areas and some huge rhododendron bushes – to see these flowering visit in May! The park is usually open daily (except Fridays) from March to October. Note that early in the season parts of the park are closed off for tree maintenance. The 19th century greenhouse, with its collection of palms is also often open to visitors of the park. Tours of part of the chateau itself are available at selected times through an on line reservation system.
• A modest wooden castle existed at Lány from the late 14th century onwards, but the area became important when Emperor Rudolf II acquired the village in the 16th century and created an extensive hunting area, replacing the wooden castle with a Renaissance hunting lodge. The lodge was transformed into a Baroque chateau in the 17th century and finally remodeled in the 18th and early 20th centuries to its current form.
• The first Czechoslovak President T.G. Masaryk made Lány his summer residence in 1921. He lived there permanently with his family after his retirement in 1935 until his death in 1937. There is a museum dedicated to Masaryk in the village (map point 6).
• There are no refreshment options in the park area, but in Lány village there are a number of good options. Try the popular Lánské cukrářství (map point 7) for its excellent coffee and cake selection (it also serves hot food). Also consider the excellent Bechnerův statek restaurant with its large terrace area (map point 8). The latter is a Hejlík recommendation.

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

• Lány is connected by bus on the route from Kladno. For drivers there are parking areas in the center of the village and at the museum
• The walk around the park does not really need direction, but note the pond area on the eastern side and the central alley of linden and chestnut trees