ubytování a restaurace Liberec

 Osecna (town square, ramblers‘ trail marked in red) – Pramen Ploucnice 1.5 km – above the saddle Na Vyprezi 7.5 km (partly unmarked) – Jested peak 9 km.

   This path joins the two most mystical places in the Jested area – the source of the river Ploucnice and the peak of Jested, a pagan water shrine in a whirl of sand and Jested’s wind–beaten rocks. The path, which wanders through the almost magical Hola forest, haunted since the beginning of time according to Podjestedi legend, passes tiny monuments to deer shot by Rohan hunters.

   Until the last steep section from the cross of Countess Winkelbauer up to Jested it is not a demanding route, and it is not suitable for cyclists.

   You can get to Osecna very easily from Liberec by bus. The centre gives the highly appealing impression of a pocket–sized little town, the local square with its 16th century Kostel sv. Vita (Church of St. Vit), plague column and old town–houses are especially beautiful.

Osecna town square

   Set off from the square along the red trail and after a short while you will come to a vast meadow, on the edge of which stands the very well–known Jenisovicky Mlyn (Jenisovice Mill), an ancient building going back to the 16th century (although it is not obvious on first sight, the mill is the same age as the church in Osecna, its history is briefly described in a special section – the town of Januv Dul). It is almost impossible to believe that the mill was powered by water from springs a mere 200 metres away. Of course, the springs of the river Ploucnice are so strong that the large Jenisovicky Rybnik (Jenisovice Pond) was placed upon them and held the water before releasing it to the mill–race. The river Ploucnice is one of the more significant rivers in northern Bohemia; it was first referred to in 1226 as the Pulsnice (compare with the German rivulet Pulsnitz in Horni Luzice), from the year it 1375 it was known as the Pluznice, before the name Ploucnice later became established. In German it was known as the Polzen. Although the real source of the river is on the north–west slope of Jested, the brooklet flowing from it is so negligible that the main springs have always been considered those that whirl up through the white sands at the bottom of the pond near Januv Dul. There are 74 kilometres before the river converges with the Labe (Elbe). Numerous tales about evil spirits, water sprites and other supernatural phenomena regarding the springs of the springs of the Ploucnice are still told today (see the general section, chapter on Water around Jested).

Jenisovice mill

   The path leads from the pond through a meadow to the village of Januv Dul, which it goes through, and just before the last houses turns left towards the huge Hola (Bald) forest. This is also sometimes referred to as the forest in Hola, the name probably originates from the time when the plant cover was exploited and clearings were made in many places. The mixed forest has a large amount of larches and pines and reaches all the way from Januv Dul to the Horeni Paseky–sedlo Na Vyprezi road, where it suddenly changes into high– mountain spruce forest. As you approach Jested the forest gets inexorably sparser and lower with the increase in altitude. Hola forest is surrounded on all sides by villages, which could be the reason it so often used to be visited by smugglers, poachers and old women who would secretely collect brushwood and rake up forest grass for domestic animals. Pomnicky hajneho Plachta and hajneho Friedricha (little monuments for gamekeepers Placht and Friedrich, slain by poachers from under Jested) can be found here (see the Crosses of Foresters Placht and Friedrich), both stand beside the marked trail and can best be found on the map of Jestedsky Hrbet (Jested Ridge) 1:25 000 from the year 1997.

Pagan mood at the source of the Ploucnice

   The path goes through pleasant woodland right up to the crossroads with six ways. On the left you will surely notice the massive wooden Prusky Kriz (Prussian Cross) with a gilded figure of Christ. During the Prussia–Austria war, in 1866 there was a Prussian camp about a kilometre from here. The place is still called Prajzske Mejto today. Suddenly in the night a young captain died and was immediately buried the next morning under a birch cross. Soon afterwards the army withdrew, to the great joy of the local populace. As the years went by the grave became overgrown with heather and the cross also rotted. Later people put up a new one in the same place as thanks for surviving the war. This cross became an object of fear for many pilgrims, especially on windy nights when unearthly sounds and creaks echoed forth from the loose tin coping. However, inhabitants of the nearby villages at the instigation of a monk decided to replace the old cross with a new one, and furthermore have the crossroads lit up, in order to get rid of all the ghosts. This occurred in 1905. The path by the cross leads furthest to the right (about 200 metres) to one of the oldest human dwellings in the Jested area: the massive sandstone overhang Jermanska Skala, temporary accommodation for people during the Bronze Age, and still slept in in the 19th century by nomadic gypsies.

A detail from the Prussian Cross

   A short way from the crossroads you will cross Kyselinci Kopec (571 m). Its unusual name evokes the old Podjestedi name for cranberries (kyselinky). Go past the hayloft on the right and cross the main road. Beyond that climb absolutely straight up the marked trail for half a kilometre; after about 300 metres you will find the high wooden Kriz hrabenky Winkelbauerove (Cross of the Countess Winkelbauer) from 1935. Edina Winkelbauer was one of the daughters of Franz, Count of Clam–Gallas and she was also the owner of part of the forests in the Jested hunting grounds. The path starts off very steep. On the left in thick spruce forest there is an interesting monument to Jested hunters – a small trilateral statue without a cover, known as "hunter‘s luck". Prince Rudolf shot "his" deer in 1882. That particular aristocrat really was here in that year, and on July 14 he even went up to the peak of Jested, where he admired the spectacular view together with princess Stephanie. There are similar statuettes to be found in the thick forests a little further north of here.

   Go past the peak of Cerveny Kamen (Red Stone, 841 m) with its massive quartz rocks, discoloured to pink and red in places by dashes of iron, and go up the relatively wide path towards the Nad Vyprezi crossroads. About half a kilometre before is the Mohyla Letcu (Flyer’s Cairn), a monument to the victims of the air tragedy on August 20 1948, when a twin–engined Siebel aeroplane lost its bearings in the fog during a flight from Prague to Liberec airport and wound up here, on the craggy Jested hillside. Two travellers, coincidently aeroplane designers, and three members of the crew perished. Debris from the plane is still strewn around the monument today.

Mohyla letcu

   Vrchol Jestedu (the peak of Jested), which can be regarded along with its wide–ranging expanse of stones and boulders all the way from Red Stone from highly unusual angles, is now less than a kilometre away. You can look back over your route from the hotel’s viewing deck, whilst from positions lower down the church in Osecna, Januv Dul, the vast Hola forest and Cerveny Kamen are all beautifully visible.

   Krize lesniku Plachta a Friedricha
   (the Crosses of Foresters Placht and Friedrich)


   Friedrich’s cross is a meticulous work of stone, hewn from porphyry and with the cross‘ beam decorated with German writing which states that here on March 12 a man perished. Unusually, however, his name is not mentioned! This may be the reason that later on a lot of speculation arose as to the cause of Friedrich’s death, which is still not clear today. It is said that on that day the 49–year old Rohan estate forester Friedrich lost his life; highlanders even used to claim that poachers tortured him to death by hanging him head first into an anthill. His tombstone is the only one to have survived in the old svetelskem cemetery by the church.

   The tale of forester Placht, whose cross stands on the druzcovske side of Hola forest, is similar, but more detailed. Josef Placht was born in 1851 into an old forester family in Kummer (now Hradcany) in Mimoňsko; he entered the service of the princes of Rohan and soon became a conscientious, promising and ambitious forester, much in the family tradition. He lived in the gamekeeper’s lodge in Horeni Paseky, and became well–known thanks to his attempts at cultivation, and with L. Sweceny even planted the scrub on the peak of Jested which is still there today. On April 15 together with Mr. Benes and Mr. Muzak he heard grouse calling and followed the sound. It was five in the morning, in harsh weather. The path split up and nobody ever saw Placht alive again. Muzak and Benes heard two shorts ring out, but just assumed that Placht was shooting for grouse. Having failed to bag anything themselves, they returned to the gamekeeper’s lodge and waited for the gamekeeper. When after a long time he still had not returned, they decided to return to the forest, assuming that something bad had befallen him. After a long search they found his corpse. He had evidently caught some poachers, who had reacted by murdering and looting him. The forester left behind a widow and five children. Even after a lengthy investigation the murderer was never caught. Liberec newspapers wrote about the whole case in great detail, but even that did not help bring about the killer’s apprehension, until 1909, when a motley collection of individuals met up in a tavern in the Liberec settlement of Frantiskov, where many Jested highlanders used to refresh themselves after crossing the ridge. A certain Florian Bulir divulged during a quarrel that Placht had been shot by his brother Vilem Bulir, a known poacher from Hodky, locally referred to as Horsky Vilik (Berg–Wilhelm). He was arrested by the police shortly afterwards. However, a long inquiry at the court in Cesky Dub could not bring the case to a close. Brother Florian, who had first uttered the accusation, later withdrew it, and so Horsky Vilik was absolved of all guilt. However, it is said that the poacher’s sister confessed on her death–bed that she had hidden her brother’s rifle after the killing. The murderer was thus exposed, but he was not punished. Instead he lived on for a little while, with his senses deranged.