Protected Landscape Area Kokorinsko – Machuv kraj
Kokorinsko is a unique protected landscape area just north of Prague. It consists of two areas named Kokorinsko and Machuv kraj. This beautiful landscape is admired simply because it has a lot to offer. Breathtaking sceneries and cultural heritage of the area definitely are worth seeing.
Kokorinsko is a region of woodland, ravines, ponds, lakes and wetlands, but the most famous are its sandstone rocks and rock citadels that have made the area famous and have since 2014 secured the ‘order of merit’ of being a Protected Landscape Area, comprising two distinct territorial units – Kokorinsko and Machuv kraj, a landscape zone named after the poet, Macha, and lying just outside the Central Bohemian region boundary.
The tell-tale symbols of Kokorinsko are distinctive natural landmarks – rock formations that often take bizarre shapes, and accordingly have names such as ‘The Frog’, ‘The Boar’, ‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’ – and the best-known, “Poklicky” [pan-lids] – as well as man‑made features. When it came to buildings, our ancestors showed great respect for nature, and the area’s settlements have since the very beginning harmonized with the surrounding landscape.
The character of the locality is thus complemented by picturesque folk architecture as well as more momentous buildings – including Kokorin Castle, which charmed one of our greatest poets, Karel Hynek Macha himself.
Kokorin castle
Kokorin Castle lies in the middle of a nature reserve on a steep rocky spur above the Kokorin Valley, north of the village of the same name. Originally, a medieval fortress carved in the local sandstone was built there in the days of the King Jan Lucembursky. The first recorded mention of Kokořín dates from 1320. By the end of the 19th century only ruins remained of the castle which, however, increasingly attracted the attention of a whole generation of poets and painters from the romantic period.
For more information about the Central Bohemia Region where this place is located click here.
