*A walk in the English-style landscaped park at Vlašim castle: 6 km*

• Until the second half of the 18th century, Vlašim was a relatively unknown central Bohemian town, situated on the Blanice river. The town was dominated by its Renaissance chateau, built on the foundations of a Gothic fortress, whose original purpose was to protect a ford over the Blanice.
• Then in 1744, the chateau and its surrounding game park were acquired by the noble Austrian family of Auersperg. The Auerspergs began an ambitious redevelopment of the site, creating a large English-style landscaped park, filled with unusual ‘romantic era’ buildings, including a Chinese pavilion. Late 18th century travel writers considered Vlašim to be the most beautiful of all the parks in Bohemia.
• The chateau was given a neo-Gothic facelift in the 19th century, but then the estate gradually fell into disuse during the 20th century. It was only in the early 21st century that the town authorities were able to begin a process of renewal, including creating a nature trail around the park. Today, the park is one of most extensive and varied in the country, with attractive rocky areas and slopes centred around the meandering Blanice river. It is a highly recommended trip – the park is free to access and is open year round, so good also for a winter walk.
• The full tour around the park is around 4 km, which is a 700m walk from the train/coach station. during the visit it also worth exploring the old town (which dates back to the early 14th century). There are a number of good refreshment options in town, including a couple of cafés on the lower square (Žižkovo náměstí), the pick of which is the kavarna spolu. On the opposite side of the square from the chateau there is also a nice café – Kafíčko.
• Although there are some flat easy paths in the park, the marked nature trail is unsuitable for strollers as it has a couple of steep sections on narrow (sometimes muddy) footpaths. There is a total of 130m of height to ascend-descend on the route shown in the map below.

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

• If travelling by bus or train to Vlašim, it is a 750m walk to the park entrance, following the BLUE hiking trail. If driving there are paid parking areas on the two main squares in the centre of the town
• Once inside the park, after visiting the chateau-museum, follow the nature trail (green-white diagonal stripe markings) which runs in a clockwise direction and begins by following the left-hand edge of the park and first visits the neo-Gothic white ‘old castle’ before descending to cross the river
• look out for the stone sculptures near the river and then continue on the trail, which climbs the hill on the opposite side of the river, before returning back to the central park area and the chateau grounds