Smiřice: Holiday apartments and holiday homes

Smiřice combines a multifaceted castle history with landscapes along the Elbe. The chapel in the castle grounds is a European High Baroque building and was declared a national cultural monument by a decree of the Government of the Czech Republic dated 16 August 1995.

Culture and history

The fortress of Smiřice is first mentioned in 1392. In the 16th century, it was rebuilt in the Renaissance style and incorporated into the eastern wing of the present-day château. After 1661, Antonín Pankrác Galas had the fortress converted into an early Baroque château; the farm buildings were completed in 1687.

Landscape and nature

Smiřice is situated in the plain along the upper reaches of the Elbe. In the past, the Elbe divided into at least three branches near Smiřice, while frequent floods brought sand, gravel and fertile reddish soil into the surrounding area. The landscape once had a swampy character and included floodplain forests that were still present in the second half of the 19th century.

East of Smiřice lies the Obora Biocentre on the reclaimed site of a former gravel and sand pit. It is divided into an ecological zone and a recreational zone; the boundary is marked by a footbridge over the main body of water. The biocentre includes wetlands as well as habitats for thermophilic insect communities.

The château park in Smiřice is considered a collection of dendrological exotics that are not commonly found in local parks.

Paths between nature and the river

The educational trail at Plivátky includes an insect hotel, beetle burrows (Logger), the “Ježek” feature as a winter shelter for vertebrates, part of the “Vrbová Galerie”, two benches and a wildflower meadow. As a footpath between the Obora Biocentre and the Elbe, it symbolically imitates a meandering river course.

By bicycle

The 26-kilometre-long, easy cycling route from Hradec Králové to Kuks leads into the château park of Smiřice. It is suitable for standard bicycles and can easily be ridden with a child trailer.

More local profiles: Hněvčeves, Sendražice, Máslojedy, Kratonohy, Roudnice, Pšánky, Stračov, Nový Bydžov.

To the overarching travel overview: Hradec Králové District.