Walking or cyclink outings in the surrouding area

Walking or cyclink outings in the surrouding area

• Týnec

  The village of Týnec, with a few remarkable monuments, is situated 3 km from Klenová. A High Baroque chateau owerlooks the village. The chateau was identified in 2001 as the work of the Italian architect Giovanni Batista Alliprandi from the beginning of the 18th century. In the 1930s, the printmaker and writer Josef Váchal dwelled here as a guest of the builder Jaroslav Polívka.

  After a long time in disrepair, the chateau is now in private hands and it's restoration into a centre of contemporary art has begun. The Church of The Assumption of the Virgin Mary (14th century) with a baroque tower is surrounded by a cemetery with the family burial chamber of the Kolovrats and the grave of Vilma Vrbová - Kotrbová. A wooden house in which the writer Josef Hais - Týnecký spent his childhood is situated next to the cemetery.

• Loreta

  On the opposite hill from Týnec we can find a monumental torso of one storey chapel of St. Jan Nepomucký (1730) oriented exactly on the axis of the chateau. The chapel is accesible from a village of Loreta with the former hunting lodge of the Kolovrats. In the village we can also find one of the few preserved Loretto chapels (1711).

  The Rennaisance wayside shrine from 1575 is located between Klenová and Týnec, in the village of Rozpáralka (30 m from the street, along a field path).

• Janovice nad Úhlavou

  In Janovice nad Úhlavou (1 km from Klenová) we can find the church of St. John the Baptist with precious Gothic wall paintings in its presbytery. From a small fortress, situated nearby and once inhabited by the lords of Janovice (close relatives of the lords of Klenová), only a cemetery surrounded by ditch remains.

  1 km from Janovice we can find the Pseudogothic chateau Veselí from the end of the 19th century, which is completely devastated today.

• Běhařov

  Continuing farther to the other side of the valley of the Úhlava river we arrive after 10 km in Běhařov. A chateau dominates the small village. The chateau was bought in 1922 by the landscape painter Alois Kalvoda who owned it till his death in 1934.

  In 1923 he established a painting school here. Today the chateau is in private hands.

• Strážov

  6 km to the north of Klenová we find the lovely mountain village Strážovwith its dominant Church of St. George. They used to mine silver here, and in the 19th and 20th century the town gained fame for its lacemaking. Not far from Strážov, the Late Gothic fortress Opálka is situated on a gentle slope.

• Klatovy

  Klatovy, 13 km away from Klenová, was found around 1260 by the Czech prince Přemysl Otakar II. The jesuit Baroque Church of The Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary and St. Ignac built between 1656 and 1679 belongs among the most important sights in the town. Its builders were Carlo Lurago and Domenico Orsi, both Italian artists who settled in Bohemia. The main altar - ilusive painting by Josef Hiebl from 1716 - 17 is of interest. The facade is decorated with a rich portal, perhaps according to a design by K. I. Dietzenhofer, one of the greatest individuals of Czech Baroque architecture.
  
  Under the Black Tower, at the place where 12 houses burned down, ajesuit college and seminary were built between 1675 - 1717. The historian and poet Bohuslav Balbín used to dwell here and it was here that he wrote his famous tract "A Defence of Slavic Languages, above all the Czech Language". After canceling the jesuit order in 1773, the college was transformed into a barracks and brewery. Nowadays the building serves commercial purposes, and part of it serves as a municipal library.
  
  Bellow the church one can visit vast catacombs. Between 1674-1783 members of the order and aristocracy with a liking for the jesuits were buried there. The jesuits introduced a mummification process here which is unique in the Czech Republic. They let the buried bodies be fanned with circulating air so that the bodies mummified in a natural way. The air circulated through the crypt through an ingenious system of channels, conducting air through hollow columns inside the nave and above the vault of the church. 200 deceased were burried here in total. Due to negligence while restoring the church in the 1930s, 160 mummies decayed. Today around 40 bodies are placed here in coffins with glass lids.
  
  The five-storied Black Tower is 71 metres tall. It was built between 1547 - 1555 by master craftsman Antoň to signal about approaching danger. From its gallery, one can see a beautiful view over the town and a panorama of the Šumava mountains.
  
  The Archdeacon Church of The Birth of the Virgin Mary is the oldest church in the town. From the middle of the 13th century it has undergone many architectural adaptations, its contemporary appearance originates from the 14th century. At the beginning of the 20th century it was partly redesigned by the well-known architect Josef Fanta (f.e. he designed the Main Rail Station in Prague) and decorated with sculptures by Čeněk Vosmík. The interior of the church is equiped with Baroque altarpieces, sculptures and frescoes. After 1685 a miraculous painting of the Virgin Mary from Klatovy was placed on the altarpiece. The painting shed blood and healed as a sign of the miracle.
  
  The name of the Baroque pharmacy U Bílého jednorožce (At White Unicorn) originates from a white horn of a sea narwhale, which used to hang above the entrance and which was believed to originate from the mythical unicorn whose horn was supposed to have healing powers. The equipment of the pharmacy dates back to 1773. The pharmacy, with its Baroque furnishings, was in operation till 1966, since then a museum with exhibits of old pharmaceutical instruments and a few medical methods is there. In the same building is the Galerie Klatovy / Klenová.
  
  Other sights:
  Town hall
  The dominican church of St Lawrence
  The cemetery church of St. Michael
  The Church of St. Anna in Hůrka The chapel of the Apparation of the Virgin Mary

• Velhartice

  The castle was found at the beginning of the 14th century, and in the following century it was widened. A massive stone bridge with four lanceolate arches conjoins an old Gothic palace and a tower which used to serve both as defence and living space. A late Rennaisance chateau with a portico was added to the palace. It was built during the Thirty Years War by Martin Huerta.

  In the area we can also find a former brewery and the ruins of castle walls and agricultural buildings. In the immediate surounding of the castle a few examples of folk architecture were brought. The Church of the Birth of the Virgin Mary in the centre of the town preserves in its sacristy a precious alveolate vault.

• Švihov

  An interesting feature of this Gothic castle, built by Půta Švihovský from Rýzmberk, is its location in a flat landscape, therefore it was not defended by inaccessible terrain but surrounded by a water moat. The castle was perhaps built according to the plans of Benedikt Rejt (the builder of Prague Castle). After the Thirty Years War the castle was not inhabited anymore and part of the outer fortification was pulled down.

  The inner castle (formerly surrounded by another water moat) has been preserved almost completely, with original stone portals, ribbed vaults and wall paintings which are all worth seeing. Švihov with its water fortification system belonged among the best fortresses at the time.