Circuits in the low hills north of Nová Paka, with a visit to Hradiště Levín: 8 km to 13 km

• Nová Paka is probably best known today as a transit point for visitors to the Krkonoše mountain region in north Bohemia. Nová Paka is, however, quite an historic town, originally founded in the 14th century. The town suffered multiple calamities, with significant fires destroying the mostly wooden built settlement several times. Episodes of plague in the 16th and 17th centuries combined with significant losses during the 30 Years War, to decimate the population.
• Despite these setbacks, the town survived and today is an important gateway to the mountain tourist region. Although most visitors rarely stop on their way northwards, there are some nice trails worth exploring in the low hills surrounding Nová Paka. Many of these offer good views of the Krkonoše range to the north. There are also some rarely visited historic monuments, including abandoned medieval fortress sites.
• One of these is Hradiště Levín, an early 14th century castle site located a few kilometers to the north of Nová Paka. Castle Levín features massive ramparts and a moat, but the original buildings and walls have now completely disappeared. The site was abandoned in the 15th century after the Hussite wars. It is worth combining a visit to Levín with an easy circuit in the hills to the north of Nová Paka.
• If starting in Nová Paka itself, the circuit is around around 13 km with 300m of height to ascend/descend on a mix of country road and easy forest footpaths. This is the route shown in the map below. A shorter circuit (around 8 km, with just over 200m of height to ascend/descend) can be made by starting and finishing in the village of Levínská Olešnice, which is connected by bus with Nová Paka.
• There are no refreshments directly on the route, but there are several options in Nová Paka, including a visit to the local brewery, situated in the smartly reconstructed 19th century buildings on the edge of town. Tours of the brewery are possible during weekdays. There is also a well known burger restaurant, FOLK burger, close to the main road through the town (400m from the town square along the RED trail).

Note: click ‘Show on Mapy.cz’  to go to a full screen version of the route directly on the mapy.cz site. This can be used for on line navigation, saved or exported as a GPX file.

Directions

• If starting in Nová Paka, begin the circuit at the Nová Paka – město trail junction (map point 2)
• Take the YELLOW trail heading towards Stará Paka
• After 5.2 km reach the Pod Hvězdou junction and there turn right onto the GREEN trail heading towards Levínská Olešnic
• After 2.6 km, just after pssing the first of the farm buildings on the edge of Levínská Olešnic village, turn right onto the RED trail (map point 4)
• The Levín castle site is reached after 500m and the rampart walls are obvious
• Continue on the RED trail directly back to the centre of Nová Paka, reached after 4.5 km