The ‘Path of Freedom 1939-1945’ educational trail, starting in Točná: 11 km

• The hills and the forests immediately to the south of Prague, bordering the Vltava river, saw some of the last fighting in Europe during World War II. German units stationed in this area were directly involved in suppressing the Prague Uprising which began on 5 May 1945. Even after the unconditional surrender by Germany on 8 May, fighting continued with Czech partisans, as German units fled towards to the American lines at the demarcation line in southwest Bohemia (to avoid capture by the Red Army). The end of the war in Bohemia was messy, confusing and particularly brutal – with both sides involved in acts of brutality.
• An education trail was created in 2020 in the Točná and Komořany areas (on the southern outskirts of Prague) to detail events that occurred in these hills and forests during WWII, particularly in the war’s final days. Twenty information panels are spread along the 11 km route. These are quite detailed and only in Czech – but still worth the effort to understand as events in this area shed important light on the complex end to the war, involving Wehrmacht and SS units fighting Red Army, renegade Soviet, US and Czech partisan forces.
• One of the stops on the trail is Točná airfield, which was important during the war and today is home to a museum of privately owned vintage aircraft. The airfield is open to the public every second Saturday of the month, from March to December. If flying conditions are good, many of the aircraft can be seen in the air.
• The route passes close to the hillfort of Závist, the most important and largest Celtic oppidum in Bohemia, covering over 100ha of fortified hilltops. The WWII trail can therefore be combined with a visit to the Celtic hillfort, which is topped with a new viewing tower.
• Overall, the trail is in attractive countryside – with sections in the forested Modřanská rokle/Cholupice nature park, and along the Vltava river – so can be enjoyed even by casual walkers. It is, however, quite a hilly route with 250m of height to ascend/descend, sometimes on quite steep forest paths.
• There are several refreshment options along the route, but if walking it during the summer months a nice option is to stop at one of the riverside snack bars – of which U Posledního Kelta (map point 5) probably has the widest selection of food and drinks.

Note: click ‘Show on Mapy.com’  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

• The route officially begins in the village of Točná, which is connected by regular buses to the Prague metro system. An alternative starting point is Zbraslav , which has direct train connections with Prague
• The trail runs clockwise from Točná, but the panels are fairly independent of each other so the route can really be taken in either direction