4.Broumov – Rozvadov
Lenght: 34,5 km
Border checkpoints:
Rozvadov – Waidhaus (A,T)
Pavlův Studenec - Bärnau (A,T)
Branka – Hermannsreuth (T)
Křížový Kámen – Kreuzstein (T)
Přední Zahájí – Waldheim (T)
Other sights:
Ostrůvek – refreshment, hunting seat
Ostrůvek –moor land with original fir-beech excrescence
Šelmberk – castle ruins - about 1.5 km from Ostrůvek, marked by KČT path
Bärnau – about 5 km from border checkpoint Pavlův Studenec, Button Museum
Weisskapelle – Calvary with a chapel by Bärnau
Rozvadov – refreshment
Description:
South of Broumov there used to be the village Jalový Dvůr (Galtenstallung) A mansion was established here around 1760 and later it was accompanied with a settlement of houses. There was also a hunting lodge. Before the war the settlement had 16 houses. After the war it was not resettled and in 1950s the houses were pulled down. The hunting lodge was used by the Border Guard but by mid 1960s it was pulled down too. Only uneven terrain marks the place, where the village used to be. And there is also a monument from 1906, west of the village on a crossing of wood paths, commemorating purchase of the surrounding forest by the town Planá.
The service road continues from the border crossing, where it goes past a former troop house, to the natural reserve Bučina u Ždáru. Right before it, the road passes another dilapidated building of the Border Police. From there the road goes towards Branka. There, in the Mže river valley, it continues towards the former Pavlův Studenec (Paulusbrunn) and on the way, it passes by another extinct village
Hraničná. Hraničná was a part of an older and still existing German village Hermannsreith, which enlarged in the 18th century even to the Czech territory and it had total of 23 houses. After the war the German population were removed and in 1950s Hraničná was pulled down. Today there is only a meadow on the Czech side of the border opposite the German village. The road to Dolní Hraničná is marked with KČT red path.
The service road continues on to Javořina (730 m a.s.l.) after which it crosses a road (KČT green path) leading from Obora to the border crossing Pavlův Studenec / Bärnau. From there it goes on to the circa 4 km far no longer existing village Pavlova Huť (Paulushutte) The village was situated on the upper stream of Sklářský brook. Before this settlement there was a glassworks and a sawmill founded around 1740. By 1930 the settlement had 14 houses. After the removal of the German population the village was not resettled and in 1950s it was destroyed in the process of creation of the border zone (the border barriers went right through the village area). Now only small remains of the foundations can be seen in the bushes. From the era of Border Guard a building called Němeček (now a gamekeeper’s lodge) has remained in the forest circa 1 km to the south and at the road to Zlatý Potok there are the deserted former Barracks.
Nearby there is a natural reserve Pavlova Huť. The natural reserve is to protect the waterlogged spruce land, which is a rare thing in spruce lands. The service road continues on to Zlatý brook and on the way it goes past the former barracks and the natural reserve Ostrůvek with beech-fir-spruce sub-mountainous jungle. The reserve is difficult to get to.
The service road continues to the former village Zlatý potok (Goldbach). The village was located in the deep border forests west of Lesná, on the affluent of the Celní brook. In the Middle Ages gold was probably washed there, but the village was established only in 1730s along with the glassworks. It operated until 1894, when the locality started to lose population and before the war only the gamekeeper’s lodge and the inn remained there. After 1945 even these two objects were deserted. Today we can find there two wooden buildings created after 1990. From the original settlement only a distinctive ruin of one building and stone pedestals of two crosses have remained – one is next to the aforesaid ruin and the other on the opposite, northern end of the village.
West of Zlatý potok there is the hill Havran, on the top of which there is a tower of the former military watch tower. At present it is accessible only at your own risk. Near Havran there is the natural reserve Křížový kámen and another extinct village Skláře. The service road meets the red and green KČT path there. The green path takes us inland, after circa 3 km we reach the former hunting lodge Ostrůvek, where refreshment is available. The service road continues along the red KČT path towards the former village Stoupu (Alt Pocher), which used to be a part of the now also extinct village Česká ves (Böhmischdorf). The village was established in late 17th century, in 1930 there lived over 600 people, including the surrounding settlements and lone houses. The village was destroyed in 1950s in the process of establishment of the border zone. Now there can be seen walls of some houses, around there are large pastures.
The settlement Nové Domky. used to be a part of the Česká ves too. Now its place can be found only according to the Bavarian village Neudorf located next to it behind the border. No traces of the village have been left on our side. Not far from there is Josefovo Údolí, where used to be a mill and a mirror-grinding-plant. The old water-gang still exists and distinctive walls with vaulted cellars have remained. A little way lower in the same valley there used to be a glass-polishing-plant. It also has left a water-gang and a distinctive ruin. In 1936 there was built, now unused, stone bridge over the Celní brook.
The service road continues on to the former Zadní Zahájí, where it meets the road from Lesná to Nové Domky, which it crosses several times and goes along.
The village Zahájí (Waldheim) was established in 1608. The village consisted of two parts – Přední and Zadní Waldheim. The German part of the village Vorder Waldheim still exists. There used to be a mill and a customs house. After the war the village became a part of the border zone and in 1950s it was pulled down. Now only a stone pedestal of a cross under two older lime trees has remained right next to the border. The Zadní Waldheim, which was circa 1 km to the east near the aforesaid road, ended up the same – only the village pond has remained. On the small hill in the wood south of Přední Waldheim there are ruins of two castles, which were deserted already before the World War II (the older castle was deserted already in the 19th century). Their remains, ruins of the outer walls and vaulted cellars are still there. Near there is the family vault of the Malovec family, now destroyed.
Circa 2 km from there, along the service road road, there was another village Jedlina (Neu Losimthal)
(a monument in front of and behind the village)
The village was established around 1626. Before the war there lived more than 500 people. After the war, when the Germans were removed, the village became a part of the border zone and was slowly destroyed. In the centre of the former village there are still remains of the St. Ann church, the spire of which was used as a watch-tower by the Border Guard. Near there is a new monument to the victims of the World War I. Near the village there is a cemetery, partially restored after 1990. In the wood circa 2 km to the south-east at the border there is a stone mound with a cross and an image of Our Lady of 1927, called Panenka. The mound survived the whole era 1945-1990 and recently it has been repaired.
Service road then continues to the three former villages:
Nová Huť (Neuhütte)
The village was established only around 1770. In 1930 there were 14 houses. The village, deserted after the war, was destroyed in 1950s when the border zone was established. Only a distinctive ruin of one house and visible foundations of some others have remained.
Nové Domky (Neuhäusl)
The village was established only in late 17th century by the administration of the Velké Dvorce mansion, but later it developed into quite a big village. Before the war it had almost 750 people.
After the war the German population was removed and during the socialism era the village got into vicinity of the border barriers. Only circa 10 houses and a dilapidated church have survived this era. At the church there is a memorial to the victims of the World War I. and a cemetery, partially restored after 1990. At the north end of the village there is a wooden gamekeeper’s lodge and next to it there is the former Border Guard barracks, now serving as a facility for detention of problematic youth. On 25.12.1989 the foreign ministers of the Czech Republic and West Germany cut the border barrier there, whereby the liquidation of the "iron curtain” started.
Hraničky (Reichenthal)
The village was established in the 1st half of the 18th century at a glassworks. The glass works ceased to exist later, but there were also iron mills and glass-polish-plant, which worked until 1938. At that time there were 344 people. After the war the village was destroyed. Now there are only three large lime-trees at the road on the former village-green. In 1990 the natives from the village installed a wooden cross there. In the north-west, on the bank of the Mlýnský pond there was a chapel from 1856, but now only ruins in the bush remain. There is an image of what the chapel looked like – it was placed thereby the natives, who have survived. Under the village, on the Hraniční brook there used to be Arnoštin iron-mill, founded in late 18th century and inhabited until 1945. In the 1950s it was destroyed too. West of the village there is a cast-iron cross on a stone pedestal from the 19th century. The cross in the curve of the road to Jedlina under two large lime-trees survived the whole socialist period.
At the former village Hraničky the service road turns to the south and leads along the red KČT path. About 3 km later it crosses the main road leading to the border crossing Rozvadov – Waldhaus. The busy road has three lines there and caution is required when crossing it.