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South Moravia: wine, castles and traditions

Mergiprinlume — Fri, 21 Aug 2026 12:07:57 +0000

South Moravia holds almost the entire vineyard area of the Czech Republic, in a landscape of gentle hills, villages with whole streets of wine cellars, and an ensemble of palaces and parkland so large it is regarded as the biggest man made landscape in Europe. It is the part of Czechia that visitors who go only to Prague never see.

What is drunk here, what the UNESCO landscape at Lednice is, where the cellar villages are and how to cover the region by bicycle.

The wine: what South Moravia drinks

Czechia has no reputation as a wine country, and the explanation is simple: most of the production is drunk at home and rarely leaves the country. Nearly all Czech vineyards are here, in the south east of Moravia, divided into four subregions.

Isolated chapels are the visual marker of the region. Photo: Pexels

Veltlínské zelené: the dominant white variety, known internationally as Grüner Veltliner. Dry, with notes of white pepper.
Ryzlink rýnský and ryzlink vlašský: two different rieslings, the first German and the second Italian in origin.
Pálava: a variety bred in Czechia and named after the local hills. Aromatic and off dry, it is the most representative local wine.
Frankovka and svatovavřinecké: the two base reds, both light and high in acid.
Ice wines and straw wines, made in small quantities in good years.

Illustrative image of vines at dusk. Photo: Pexels

Autumn brings burčák, must in full fermentation, sold for only a few weeks in September and October. It tastes like sweet juice and the alcohol is barely noticeable, which is exactly why it deserves respect. It is sold by the glass everywhere, and the end of the season is officially announced.

Local varieties: pálava, veltlínské zelené, frankovka. Photo: Pexels

The Lednice-Valtice cultural landscape

This is the most unusual thing in the region and it is hard to explain until you see it. The Liechtenstein family held the area for centuries and, from the eighteenth century onwards, turned roughly two hundred and eighty square kilometres into a single designed park, with palaces, avenues, artificial lakes and decorative buildings scattered across the countryside.

The park around the palace covers over two hundred hectares. Photo: Pexels

The wine cycling routes total over a thousand kilometres. Photo: Pexels

The result was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage list in 1996 and is described as the largest man made landscape in Europe. In practice it is a park the size of a city, crossed on foot, by bicycle or by carriage.

Lednice Palace: neo-Gothic, with a tropical glasshouse and an enormous park. The most visited sight in the region.
Valtice Palace: Baroque, seven kilometres away, with cellars and a national wine salon in the basement.
The Minaret: a tower of about sixty two metres raised in the park at the end of the eighteenth century, with no religious function whatsoever. You climb it for the view.
Janův hrad: a ruin built deliberately as a ruin, for romantic effect.
The Reistna colonnade, the Temple of the Three Graces and the other follies scattered across the fields.

The distance between Lednice and Valtice takes about an hour by bicycle, on avenues through the park. It is the best way to grasp the scale of the ensemble, because from a car you see only the buildings and not the links between them.

The villages with streets of wine cellars

The local peculiarity is called a sklepní ulička: an entire street made up only of wine cellars, with no houses to live in. Every family in the village has one, dug into loess or built in stone, with a small frontage on the street and a long gallery behind.

The landscape is upland rather than mountain. Photo: Pexels

Petrov-Plže: the most photogenic group, with around eighty whitewashed cellars painted with floral motifs. A protected monument.
Vrbice: cellars dug into loess on several levels, in a steep bank.
Velké Bílovice: the largest wine village in Czechia, with hundreds of growers and whole quarters of cellars.
Pavlov: a village below the Pálava hills, with protected vernacular houses and a view over the reservoirs.
Šatov: near Znojmo, with a cellar painted in its entirety by one man over many years.

Autumn brings the harvest and burčák, the fermenting must. Photo: Pexels

How you get into a cellar
Many cellars are not businesses and keep no hours. They are private property, entered by the grower when he has work to do, and visitors are received if he happens to be there. An open door means you can go in. The simplest route is to tell your accommodation you want a tasting and let them arrange it, or come at the weekend, when many are open. You do not drive after a tasting, and the measures poured here are not small. In the larger villages there are also cellars with fixed hours, signposted as such.

Illustrative image of fields on the Moravian upland. Photo: Pexels

Pálava, Mikulov and Znojmo

The landscape is not flat everywhere. The Pálava hills are a white limestone ridge that rises abruptly above the plain and the reservoirs, with a biosphere reserve and rare steppe grassland on the slopes.

The landforms are what made this region photogenic. Photo: Pexels

Lednice, the neo-Gothic palace at the centre of the UNESCO landscape. Photo: Pexels

Mikulov: a small town below a palace, with the Holy Hill above and one of the most important Jewish cemeteries in Central Europe.
The Děvičky ruins: a castle on the Pálava ridge, with the best view over the region. About an hour up.
Znojmo: a town on a promontory above the Dyje, with twenty seven kilometres of medieval underground galleries and a rotunda with twelfth century frescoes.
Podyjí National Park: the gorge of the Dyje on the Austrian border, with forest trails.
The Nové Mlýny lakes: three large reservoirs used for watersports.

Illustrative image of field patterns. Photo: Pexels

Brno, the gateway to the region, two hours from Prague. Photo: Pexels

The traditions of Slovácko

The eastern part of the region, called Slovácko, has the most living folk tradition in Czechia, and that does not mean shows for tourists but customs still practised.

Verbuňk, the male recruit dance, is inscribed on the UNESCO intangible heritage list. It is improvised: every dancer makes his own version, and the annual competitions are taken seriously.

Jízda králů, the Ride of the Kings, is also UNESCO intangible heritage. It takes place in a few villages, the best known being Vlčnov, where a costumed boy rides through the village with a rose held in his mouth, escorted by other young men. It is held annually at the end of May.

Illustrative image of Central European farmland. Photo: Pexels

In practice, if you want to catch something genuine, check the dates of the local festivities before fixing your travel dates. These are village events rather than festivals, and the difference shows.

Getting there, getting around and when to come

Planning
Item	Detail
Gateway	Brno, the nearest large city
From Prague	about 2 hours to Brno
From Vienna	about 1 hour 20
From Bratislava	around 1 hour 30
Days needed	3 to 4
Best months	May to June and September to October
Cycling	over 1,200 km of waymarked wine routes

The bicycle is the right vehicle here, not the car. The network of waymarked wine routes totals over twelve hundred kilometres, the terrain is gentle, and the villages sit a few kilometres apart. Bikes are hired in Lednice, Mikulov and Valtice, electric ones included.

September is the best month: the harvest, the burčák and the wine festivals all fall together, and the temperature becomes bearable. Book accommodation ahead for September weekends, because Czech visitors come too.

Regional information is published by the South Moravia tourist board, and national context by the Czech tourist authority.

Frequently asked questions (FAQ)

What wine does South Moravia produce?

Predominantly white: veltlínské zelené, riesling and pálava, a variety bred in Czechia and named after the local hills. For red, frankovka and svatovavřinecké, both light.

What is burčák?

Must in full fermentation, sold for only a few weeks in September and October. It tastes like sweet juice and the alcohol is barely noticeable, which makes it deceptive.

What is the Lednice-Valtice landscape?

About two hundred and eighty square kilometres turned into a single designed park by the Liechtenstein family, with palaces and follies. A UNESCO site since 1996.

What is a cellar street?

An entire street made up only of wine cellars, with no dwellings. Each family has one, with a small frontage and a long gallery behind. The most photogenic is at Petrov.

How do I get a tasting in a cellar?

Many are private property with no opening hours. An open door means you can go in. The simplest route is to ask your accommodation to arrange it, or to come at the weekend.

How many days do I need?

Three or four. One for Lednice and Valtice, one for Pálava and Mikulov, one for the cellar villages, and a fourth for Znojmo or for Slovácko.

Is it worth doing by bicycle?

Yes, it is the right vehicle here. Over twelve hundred kilometres of waymarked routes, gentle terrain and villages a few kilometres apart. Electric bikes are available to hire.

Which is the best month?

September: the harvest, the burčák and the wine festivals fall together. Book accommodation ahead for weekends, because Czech visitors come too.

Conclusion

South Moravia is the part of Czechia where practically all the country wine is made, in a landscape of whole streets of cellars and a designed park the size of a city.

Come in September, hire a bicycle instead of a car, get into a village cellar, and check the dates of local festivities before fixing your trip.

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Bohemian Switzerland: sandstone arch and gorges

Mergiprinlume — Fri, 21 Aug 2026 12:07:55 +0000

Bohemian Switzerland is a national park in northern Czechia, on the German border, made up of sandstone eroded into towers, walls and stone labyrinths. It holds the largest natural sandstone arch in Europe, gorges crossed in a punt pushed along with a pole, and a practical detail nobody anticipates: part of the trail network was affected by the largest wildfire in the modern history of the country.

What you see at the arch, how the punt gorges work, what changed after the fire, what lies on the German side and how to get there.

What Bohemian Switzerland is and where the name comes from

The park covers about seventy nine square kilometres and was established in the year 2000. It is the Czech half of a sandstone massif that continues across the border into Germany, where it is called Saxon Switzerland. Together they form one of the most spectacular sandstone areas in Europe.

The sandstone massif continues across the border into Saxony. Photo: Pexels

The German side of the same massif, a few kilometres away. Photo: Pexels

The name has an amusing and verifiable origin. In the eighteenth century two Swiss artists working at the Dresden academy travelled through the region and said it reminded them of home. The label stuck, even though there is not a single alpine mountain here.

The forest grows directly between the sandstone blocks. Photo: Pexels

The rock is sandstone laid down on the floor of a Cretaceous sea, later lifted and cut by water and frost. The result is isolated towers, vertical walls split by fissures and very narrow gorges, with forest growing directly between the blocks.

Illustrative image of sandstone landscape. Photo: Pexels

Illustrative image of sandstone terrain. Photo: Pexels

Pravčická brána, the largest sandstone arch in Europe

It is the symbol of the park and the reason most visitors come. The span of the arch measures about twenty six and a half metres, and the clear height beneath it passes sixteen metres.

Illustrative image of a sandstone slope. Photo: Pexels

The important detail: you can no longer walk on the arch. Access on top was closed permanently in 1982, because the passage of tens of thousands of people had eroded the stone. You look at it from the platforms laid out around it, which give the good angles anyway.

The Kamenice runs through the gorges crossed by punt. Photo: Pexels

Beside the arch stands Sokolí hnízdo, the Falcon Nest, a nineteenth century building raised as a hunting residence and turned into a restaurant. Access to the platforms runs through it and a ticket is charged.

How you reach the arch
The climb usually starts from the village of Hřensko, on a trail of about an hour, or from Mezná, which is shorter. There is no road to the top and no cable car. The height gain is a few hundred metres, on a well made but continuously climbing path. In summer and at weekends the queue at the ticket office and on the platforms can pass half an hour, so set off early. Parking at Hřensko is limited and expensive.

The Kamenice gorges and the punt

The Kamenice river has cut two gorges into the sandstone so narrow that there is no bank to pass along. The solution, over a century old, is to get into a flat boat that a boatman pushes with a pole, between vertical walls.

Illustrative image of a wooded valley. Photo: Pexels

Illustrative image of a river valley. Photo: Pexels

There are two sections, the Edmund Gorge and the Wild Gorge, each covered separately with its own ticket. Each crossing lasts around a quarter of an hour, and between them you walk on paths and boardwalks.

Illustrative image of a village at the foot of the massif. Photo: Pexels

The season is limited, generally April to October depending on water levels. After heavy rain or at high flow the boats are suspended. There is no online booking, you queue at the landing stage, and on summer weekends that can mean an hour.

What changed after the fire of 2022

In July and August 2022 the park was hit by the largest wildfire in the modern history of the Czech Republic. Around a thousand hectares burned, a significant share of the park area, and putting it out took weeks with international assistance.

The sandstone terrain complicated everything: the fire dropped into the fissures in the rock and smouldered there, and access for crews was nearly impossible on vertical walls.

The Bastei bridge, on the German side, under an hour away. Photo: Pexels

The practical consequence for a visitor is simple and important: a number of trails were closed for long periods, and reopening has been gradual, as unstable trees were assessed and removed. The situation changes from one season to the next.

Check the park administration website for which trails are open, a few days before you travel. Do not rely on old maps or on articles written a few years ago. The burnt areas are visible and are themselves part of a landscape recovering in front of visitors.

What else is in the park and across the border

The arch and the gorges are the most visited, but the area holds a great deal more, and the rest is considerably quieter.

An image from the German half of the massif. Photo: Pexels

The Jetřichovice viewpoints: Mariina vyhlídka, Vilemínina stěna and Rudolfův kámen, three points on the rocks, linked in a loop of about four hours.
Hřensko: the village where the river meets the Elbe, the lowest point in Czechia at about a hundred and fifteen metres.
Tiské stěny: a sandstone labyrinth outside the park, about an hour away and far less visited.
The Bastei bridge, on the German side: the most photographed point of the massif, under an hour by car.
Königstein and Rathen, also in Germany, both reachable on the same day.

Sandstone erodes into isolated towers and into labyrinths. Photo: Pexels

Crossing the border is free and unmarked, and many waymarked trails cross it without your noticing. In practice a three day trip here can take in both halves with no formalities at all.

Getting there, where to stay and when to go

Planning
Item	Detail
From Prague	about 1 hour 30 to Děčín
From Dresden	about 45 minutes
Gateway	Děčín, or Hřensko directly
Days needed	2 to 3, including the German side
The punt gorges	usually April to October, depending on flow
The arch	about 1 hour up from Hřensko, ticketed
Essential	check which trails are open before you travel

The train from Prague to Děčín works very well, followed by a bus or a river boat to Hřensko, which spares you the parking problem. Accommodation is in Hřensko, Jetřichovice, Mezná or Děčín, at reasonable prices outside summer.

Trail conditions, access rules and the gorge timetable are published by the national park administration, and general tourist information by the Czech tourist authority.

Frequently asked questions (FAQ)

Can you walk on the arch?

No. Access on top was closed permanently in 1982, because the passage of tens of thousands of people had eroded the stone. You view it from the platforms around it.

How long is the climb to the arch?

About an hour from the village of Hřensko, slightly less from Mezná. There is no road and no cable car, and the path climbs a few hundred metres continuously.

How do the punt gorges work?

A boatman pushes a flat boat with a pole between vertical walls. There are two separate sections, each with its own ticket, each lasting about a quarter of an hour.

When do the boats run?

Generally April to October, depending on water levels. They are suspended at high flow. There is no online booking, you queue at the landing stage.

What happened in the 2022 fire?

Around a thousand hectares burned, the largest wildfire in the modern history of the country. A number of trails were closed and have reopened gradually since.

Do I need to check the trails beforehand?

Yes, essential. The situation changes from season to season, and maps or articles more than a few years old no longer reflect what is open. Check the park website.

Can I cross into Germany?

Yes, freely and with no formalities. Many waymarked trails cross the border without your noticing. The Bastei bridge is under an hour away by car.

How many days do I need?

Two or three, including the German side. One for the arch and the gorges, one for the Jetřichovice viewpoints, and a third for Bastei and the surroundings.

Conclusion

Bohemian Switzerland holds the largest natural sandstone arch in Europe, gorges crossed in a punt pushed with a pole, and a forest recovering from the largest fire in the modern history of the country.

Check which trails are open a few days ahead, set off early for the arch, come by train to avoid the parking, and leave a day for the German side.

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