Louny – Libochovice

Description of the route:

• Louny - Černčice - Obora - Počedělice - Orasice - Koštice - Křesín - Dubany - Libochovice

Louny

A possibility to have a swim in the indoor swimming pool, or there are the outdoor swimming pool grounds in the south-western edge of the town. The town walls and reconstructed bastions, the Žatec Gate, the neo-Renaissance town hall built between 1886 and 1887 and also the Gothic House of Sokols of Mory, today a museum, are the main attractions of the town.

Koštice

Here you can see e.g. the Church of Saint Anthony of Padua, the late Baroque building from the year 1752, or the statue of Saint John of Nepomuk dating back to 1729 with a sculpture of Queen Sophia, King Wenceslas IV´s wife, on its pedestal,  or a column with a statue of St Lawrence, as well as the mill from the turn of nineteenth and twentieth century with an Art Nouveau part of residential buildings. The Karfíkův Dvůr /Karfík´ s Court/, a family farm, is also of a great interest and  also offers, in addition to the processing of different kinds of fruit into generous brandies of delicious flavours and aromas, bicycle and boat rental, as well as hippotherapy and reconditioning, regeneration and massage services.

The surroundings of the village are rich in natural attractions. Geologically famous is the Koštická stráň /Koštice Slope/ along the road from/to Orasice which abounds in marlite and cretacerous marl with large amounts of Cretacerous fossils. Along the road to Libochovice, near the railway line, is a waterlogged meadow with an abundance of halophilous plants and rare species of insects.

Libochovice

The city is located in the picturesque countryside of the lower Egerland lined with romantic hills of the  České středohoří /Bohemian Middle Uplands/. LibochoviceCastle is situated in the middle of the city, on the site of an older Gothic fortress, which Jan of Lobkowicz commissioned to be turned into a Renaissance chateau in the years 1560-1564. Its later owner, Gudakar of Dietrichstein, had the chateau rebuilt in the Baroque style between 1682 and 1690, and therefore it now belongs to jewels of the Baroque architecture of North-western Bohemia. Jan Evangelista Purkyně, the Czech scientist and a representative of the national revival, whose father worked as an administrator at the chateau, was born here. The chateau houses a classic interior exhibition that represents a cross-section of different historical styles, ranging from the late Renaissance through Baroque to 19th-century styles. The exhibition includes a rich collection of china, a collection of precious wall tapestries and paintings. Around the chateau lies a beautiful extensive park, consisting of French gardens with regularly shaped tree species and of the natural landscape park with many dendrologic landmarks.