Walks in the countryside around the brewery town of Velké Popovice: 9 km to 16 km

• The town of Velké Popovice, situated 24 km southeast of Prague, is best known today for its famous brewery, founded in the 19th century by the German industrialist Ringhoffer family. Today, the brewery is part of the Prazdroj group, but still producers its distinctive unfiltered beers under the ‘walking goat’ brand. The brewery and museum can be visited on daily tours.
• Combine a visit to the brewery with a walk in the pleasant rolling countryside around the town. The low hills surrounding Velké Popovice were originally occupied and fortified by Celtic tribes, but little remains of their Iron Age fortifications. Some of the original Celtic sites became medieval settlements and later large estates developed by local nobility and wealthy families, including the Ringhoffers.
• Several local chateaux and manor houses testify to the wealth of the region, and a pleasant circular loop through the picturesque fields and woods and beside the Mokřanský stream, passes two notable chateaux. The first (which is privately owned) is at Lojovice and the second in Vidovice village is called Berchtold chateau (now a restaurant and hotel, but it has a garden and exhibition area that it accessible to the public, for a fee).
• The full loop passing both chateaux is 16 km long, with 280m of height to ascend-descent. A shorter walk just along the stream and up to Lojovice, circling back directly to Velké Popovice, is 9 km long with 140m of ascent-descent. The path beside the stream can be quite wet and muddy at times. Otherwise, the route is easy on well marked footpaths and farm tracks-village roads.
• The restaurant associated with the brewery, the Kozlovna, situated beside a small goat pen, is recommended and has the latest beers on draft.

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

• Start the walk at the brewery entrance in the center of the town of Velké Popovice (there are two large parking areas, and bus connections with the Prague metro station of Opatov)
• Join the YELLOW trail in the direction of Brtnice, initially walking through the town park
• Follow the trail for 1.3 km to reach the village of Brtnice and then continue on the YELLOW trail beside the stream for a further 2.4 km until meeting the RED trail in the village of Mokřany
• Turn left onto the RED trail and follow this along the country lane for 1.2 km to reach Lojovice village after 1.2 km
• If taking the shorter walk, return back to Velké Popovice by following the GREEN trail through Lojovice, to rejoin the YELLOW trail at the Ve Stádlích  junction
• If taking the longer walk, which also passes Berchtold chateau, continue on the RED trail for 2.7 km to reach the village of Zaječice
• At the Zaječice trail signpost, turn left staying on the RED trail to reach the Dolní Lomnice junction after 2.6 km
• At Dolní Lomnice continue on the RED trail for a further 700m, but then turn left off the RED hiking trail to join the 0025 cycle path which leads directly to Berchtold chateau after 2.5 km
• Unless visiting the chateau and gardens, continue around Berchtold and join the GREEN hiking trail, which leads back to Velké Popovice in 2.5 km