A short visit to Šumperk, ‘gateway to the Jeseníky mountains’: 3 km

• Šumperk is an attractive north Moravian town, often promoted as the best access point to Jeseníky, which is for many (including this author) the most interesting and varied mountain range in the country for hikers. Today, the town has an industrial character, but retains its historical core, including a Renaissance chateau built by the noble Žerotín family, which owned the town from the end of the 15th century.
• The most striking building in the town center is probably the Neo-Renaissance town hall (pictured in the header photo) whose tower can be climbed in the summer months for a view over the town and towards the Jeseníky hills. The town is also notable for its gastronomy, with a surprisingly large number of establishments listed in the popular Hejlík guide. This author´s personal choice of good places to eat in town are shown at map points 3,4 and 5 in the map below.
• The historical town center is quite compact, but walking to and from Šumperk main train station (which has direct connections with Prague) it is a 2 to 3 km round trip, on paved roads with little or no height difference.

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

• The BLUE hiking trail can be used to get from the train station to the historic center, with a return via the Hlavní třída pedestrian shopping street to meet up with the GREEN trail which leads back to the station