A walk along the Rosice historical education trail, near Brno: 4 km (extendable)

• The town of Rosice, located 15 km to the west of Brno has a long history, dating back at least to the 12th century, when the town’s Romanesque church was constructed. The town has created an interesting 4 km educational trail around the main sites, which range through different historical periods from the Middle Ages through to the Renaissance period (the town is dominated by the large chateau) and the Baroque, exemplified by the lovely Chapel of Holy Trinity on a nearby hilltop. The chapel is reached along a Way of the Cross pathway, lined by more than a hundred mature lime trees.
• The more recent history of the town and its various industrial buildings are also outlined in the multilingual information bords (Cz, En, D). One of the more interesting stories relates to the owners of the local corn mill, the Kellner family, who acquired the mill at the end of the 19th century. The last owners of the mill were Jindřich Kellner and his wife Josefa, who died in the Terezín concentration camp after the mill was confiscated by the Nazis in 1940.
• Kellner’s son, Rudolf, fled across Poland in 1939, to join the Czechoslovak army in exile in Russia. During the war, Rudolf Kellner reached the rank of major. He was with the Red Army when the region was liberated in May 1945 after very heavy fighting in the Rosice area (during which the old family mill was hit by artillery fire and burnt down). Kellner subsequently became the director of the pasta and bakery plant, to which the old mill was attached. Sadly, Rudolf’s endeavours during the war did not help him escape the 1951 Communist purge, when 77,000 Czechoslovak middle class intellectuals (the so called ‘Action 77‘) were selected to be reallocated to manual labour in factories. Rudolf Kellner, who died in 1979, was sent to sweep floors at the Brno arms factory, Zbrojovka Brno. The family mill was only finally restituted back to Rudolf Kellner’s daughter in the 1990’s.
• The centrepiece of the trail is the chateau, which was built on the site of a Gothic fortress. The Renaissance core is still very much in evidence – see the picture below. The most famous owners were probably the noble Moravian family, the Žerotíns. The chateau is normally open for tours from April to October.
• The trail is easy and mostly on asphalt paths, but there are sections on mud footpaths (eg along the Way of the Cross). There is around 90m of height to ascend/descend on the route. Rosice has various cafés and restaurants for refreshments. For good ice cream, try Cukrárna GELATERIA Rosice on the main street (map point 5).
• For a longer walk consider adding the 4 km long Obora Rosice nature trail, which can be accessed from near the Chapel of Holy Trinity. This trail has information boards describing the natural environment of the the former hunting grounds. The trail is mostly on forest footpaths.

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

• Rosice is easily reached by frequent train from Brno. If driving, there is short term free parking along the main street
• From the train station, join the YELLOW trail which leads to Nejsvětější Trojice – vyhl. after 1 km
• Continue on the YELLOW trail for a further 700m and then leave the marked trail (unless also doing the Obora trail) and head back into town on the side road
• For the loop around the chateau, take the road (or steps) leading past the Romanesque Church of Saint Martin up to the chateau
• If desired, divert along the main street for refreshments before exploring the chateau and park area
• For the return to the station, circle underneath the chateau on the new footpath at the bottom of the mill. This leads back to the old stone bridge over the Bobrava river
• At the stone bridge, join the GREEN hiking trail which leads back to the train station after 400m