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South BohemiaBy carVitVit — CC BY-SA 4.0 (Wikimedia Commons)

South Bohemia

Czechia

South Bohemia is the corner of Czechia that borders Austria and Germany, and the best preserved in the country: a whole medieval town wrapped in a meander of the Vltava, a white castle copied from Windsor, a village of Baroque farmsteads that is a World Heritage Site, and the brewing town that gave Budweiser its name. All of that fits into a hundred kilometres. And to the south the Šumava, closed to the world until 1989 for being an Iron Curtain border.

4 days3 nights224 km8 stopsBest season: May to September, with long days and everything open. June is the best month in Krumlov. In winter it is bitterly cold, some visits close and winter tyres are compulsory, but the town under snow and empty is something else.
Day 1A Czech Windsor and the beer squareDay 2Baroque farmsteads and the meanderDay 3A Baroque theatre and the closed forestDay 4Cistercians and the Moravian Venice

Day 1 · A Czech Windsor and the beer square

Hluboká and České Budějovice · 11 km

Hluboká nad VltavouThomas Zimmermann (THWZ) — CC BY-SA 3.0 de (Wikimedia Commons)

Hluboká nad Vltavou

history

A white castle bristling with towers and battlements on a hill, which looks medieval and is not: the Schwarzenbergs rebuilt it entirely in the 19th century in neo-Gothic style, deliberately copying Windsor Castle. It is the whim of a family that wanted to live like English royalty.

Tip

If you are short of time you need not go in: the gardens and the façade justify the stop on their own. It is ten minutes from České Budějovice.

15 min to the next stop · 11 km

České BudějovicePavel Rychtecký — CC BY 3.0 (Wikimedia Commons)

České Budějovice

culture

The capital of South Bohemia, with one of the largest square plazas in Europe: a hundred and thirty-three metres a side, fully arcaded and with Samson's fountain in the middle. Beer has been brewed here since the 13th century and Budvar is made here today, and from this city — Budweis in German — comes the name Budweiser.

Tip

Set into the cobbles of the square there is a marked stone, the wandering stone. Legend says whoever steps on it at night will get lost and never find the way home.

Day 2 · Baroque farmsteads and the meander

Holašovice and Český Krumlov · 25 km

HolašoviceThe original uploader was Sgbeer at German Wikipedia. — CC BY-SA 3.0 (Wikimedia Commons)

Holašovice

heritage

Twenty-three farmsteads around a long green with a pond, all with façades decorated in the rural Baroque of the 19th century: curved gables, mouldings and colour, applied to working farms. It is a World Heritage Site and about a hundred and forty people live here.

Tip

You walk it all in forty minutes and there is nothing to visit inside except the chapel. You come to see a village that still has the shape it had in the 18th century.

35 min to the next stop · 25 km

The old town of Český KrumlovPudelek (Marcin Szala) — CC BY-SA 3.0 (Wikimedia Commons)

The old town of Český Krumlov

heritage

The Vltava wraps the old town in an almost closed meander, and inside it fits an entire medieval city without one modern building. The Budějovice gate still stands, the only survivor of the 16th-century wall, and so does the Gothic church of St Vitus, raised by the same Rožmberk lords who built the castle.

Tip

Note: cars cannot enter the historic centre. There are numbered car parks on the edge and they are not cheap. If your lodging is inside, ask beforehand how to get there with luggage.

Day 3 · A Baroque theatre and the closed forest

The castle, Lipno and the Šumava · 50 km

Český Krumlov castleszerenka — CC BY-SA 2.0 (Wikimedia Commons)

Český Krumlov castle

history

The second largest castle complex in Czechia after Prague's, with forty buildings and five linked courtyards. Inside is the Baroque theatre, founded in 1682 and rebuilt in 1766, one of only two or three in the world that keep their period stage machinery, sets and costumes. And there have been bears at the castle since the 16th century, and in the moat since 1707: the Rožmberks claimed descent from the Italian Orsini, and orso means bear.

Tip

The Baroque theatre is visited with a guide, in very small groups and by advance booking: it sells out. And go up to the Cloak Bridge and the tower, which is where you see the whole meander.

35 min to the next stop · 39 km

Lake Lipno and the ŠumavaMOs810 — CC BY-SA 4.0 (Wikimedia Commons)

Lake Lipno and the Šumava

nature

Czechia's largest reservoir, forty kilometres of water on the edge of Šumava National Park, the largest continuous forest in central Europe. It was the border with Iron Curtain Austria: this whole strip was militarised and closed until 1989, and that is why the forest is the way it is.

Tip

Near Lipno there is a raised walkway through the treetops, almost seven hundred metres long, ending in a forty-metre lookout tower. It is the most different thing you can do on this trip.

Day 4 · Cistercians and the Moravian Venice

Zlatá Koruna and Telč · 138 km

Zlatá Koruna monasteryMiPi — CC BY-SA 4.0 (Wikimedia Commons)

Zlatá Koruna monastery

history

A Cistercian abbey of 1263 eight kilometres from Krumlov, founded by King Otakar II to curb the Rožmberks' power in the area. It keeps its Gothic church, the cloister and a two-storey chapel that is among the finest early Gothic in Bohemia. And on the village square stands a lime tree said to be seven hundred years old.

Tip

It is on the road out to the north, so it is no detour: it is the natural stop on leaving Krumlov. The visit is guided and short.

95 min to the next stop · 121 km

TelčVitVit — CC BY-SA 4.0 (Wikimedia Commons)

Telč

heritage

In the mid-16th century Zachariáš of Hradec, who would later become governor of Moravia, brought Italian architects to rebuild his castle. They ended up rebuilding nearly every house on the square too, and out of that came what is now a World Heritage Site: a triangular square of pastel Renaissance façades, with arcades and decorated gables, closed off by ponds on either side.

Tip

Climb the St James tower to see the whole square from above, and look for the entrance to the underground: there are medieval passages beneath the square that you can visit. It is two hours from Krumlov and another two from Prague, so it works as a final day before heading back.

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