Bike route from Radvanice via Chełmsko Śląskie and Horní Adršpach

“Radvanice Loop”

Radvanice – Slavětín – Petříkovice – Uniemyśl – Chełmsko Śląskie – Libná – Horní Adršpach – Radvanice

Description of the route

The route begins at Radvanice railway station and passes through the village of Radvanice, designated a rural conservation area. As well as its historic miners’ cottages, you can also see the restored neo-Romanesque Church of St John the Baptist and the striking sandstone Marian column nearby. The local cemetery also contains unusual gravestones made from the silicified trunks of Palaeozoic trees, known as araucarites. Continue past the Radvanice ski resort to Slavětín and its striking St Joseph's Chapel, which has been restored in a contemporary style. An unmarked field track takes you up to the waymarked Stezka na Jestřebky ridge cycle route. Follow that to the Markoušovice lookout tower, which offers some wonderful panoramic views. One of the area’s downhill cycling trails, the Bunkr Trail, also begins here. Our route, however, continues along the Stezka na Jestřebky trail to the Markoušovická rozhledna junction. From there, take the green hiking trail past the pre-war T-S 44 Na Pahorku infantry blockhouse, which is open to visitors. After 250 metres or so, turn left and head down along the unmarked forest track into the Petříkovický potok valley. Ride up through Petříkovice and turn left at the upper end of the village, joining marked cycle route no. 4093 towards Okrzeszyn. Across the border, the route is known as the Trasa Transgraniczna Wschodnia, or Eastern Cross-Border Route, and takes you through Okrzeszyn and Uniemyśl to the little town of Chełmsko Śląskie. In Okrzeszyn, you'll pass the neglected yet interesting Church of St Michael the Archangel, as well as the remnants of spoil heaps left over from abandoned uranium mines, the Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary and a rhyolite quarry. Farther on, Uniemyśl is home to the Church of St Matthew and a traditional timbered inn. From the square in Chełmsko Śląskie, where it is well worth seeing the Church of the Holy Family and the group of historic wooden houses known as the Twelve Apostles, follow marked cycle route no. 4149 to the former stonecutters’ village of Libná. There, turn right and take cycle route no. 4036 to the Church of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross in Horní Adršpach. From there, follow cycle route no. 22, the Sudeten Route, up along the road to the slopes below Krupná hora, turn left and ride down along the unmarked forest track, passing the forester’s lodge above Chvaleč on the way to the former Kateřina coal mine. A short final stretch along the road brings you back to Radvanice railway station.