A 9 km walk around the commuter town of Říčany, rated ‘the best place to live in the country’

• According to the national Quality of Life Index, the town of Říčany, located some 20 km to the southeast of Prague, has been considered (since 2018 when the Index started) the best place to live in the country. While this author has never lived there, he has explored its streets on more than one occasion. There are some nice places to eat and some attractive forest walking just on the doorstep. The walks starting at the nearby Jureček (swimming) lake are certainly worth trying out.
• In the map below a suggested tour of the area around town is set out. This follows part of an education trail created by the town, with information boards (in Czech only) and marked with red tear drops. The route deviates from the red tear trail to visit a small park area, advertised as a Japanese garden (not quite to the standard of Prague’s botanical garden, but still a pleasant place for a picnic). The suggested route also deviates from the marked trail to visit a number of notable refreshment spots (map points 6, 7, 8, 12 and 13). These are certainly worth checking out.
• Říčany may have only become ‘famous’ in recent years, but it actually has an unusually long history. There was likely Slavic settlement here since at least the 8th century. In the late 13th century, the chamberlain to Bohemian King Ottokar II constructed a fine stone castle next to the village stream. The stonework was so good it survived a siege by a Hussite army in the 15th century, the ravages of the 30 Years War in the 17th century and masonry hunters in the succeeding centuries. The ruins on the edge of town are one of the very few surviving examples of castle walls from this early in the Bohemian medieval period.
• In the 19th century, Říčany became a popular location for out of town villas for the wealthy, who were able to access their mansions using the new Prague to Vienna railway line. Říčany retains much of that up-market character today.
• The route shown in the map, assumes at start and finish at the railway station, with its frequent trains to/from Prague. It is around 9 km long, with 130m of height to ascend/descend. The trails are all easy and should be navigable with a stroller. There is one narrower forest footpath on the approach to the forest from the Japanese garden.

Note: click ‘Show on map’ 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 (note sections of this route are without trail markers, so it is best followed on mapy.cz or a good paper map)

• Starting at the train station, join the BLUE hiking trail heading in the direction of Říčanský les
• After 1:4 km, the BLUE trail turns left to head up Potoční street. Leave the BLUE trail at this point and carry straight on to reach the Japanese garden after 700m
• Continue straight on for 400m, entering the forest on a narrow footpath. On reaching the wide trail at a cross roads, turn right. This is the town nature trail, marked with red teardrop markers
• Stay on the nature trail for 2.5 km, passing two ponds on the right, before reaching the Marvánek pond (notable for its popular outdoor pub)
• Continue a further 600m on the nature trail until reaching the hockey stadium. Here, leave the nature trail to head into town to visit one or more of the café-restaurants marked on the map, firstly the excellent café on Komenského náměstí, then the stylish U Anežky pub-restaurant with its outdoor terrace and finally, the Coffee´s café on the main square next to the Baroque church of Saints Peter and Paul
• At this point, join the GREEN trail to visit the castle ruins after 250m
• Below the castle, rejoin the red teardrop nature trail, which returns to the train station after 1.7 km, passing Mlýnský pond n the way
• There are a couple more refreshment stops worth checking out before reaching the station – the bakery, Pekárna Okýnko and the restaurant Na Fialce