New Educational Trail at Krnov Leads Visitors across Forgotten Kabát's Hill
This year, the volunteer caretakers resolved to present the site to the general public. Thanks to the NET4GAS Closer to Nature programme, they were able to build a new local educational trail reflecting this history, which is dedicated to the site's significance as a nature reserve, as well as to the site’s past and its surroundings.
In the distant past, Kabat's Hill, which connects two parts of town of Krnov: Chomýž and Ježník, apparently only served as pasture. In the 19th century, the "Macnerka" inn was built atop the hill, a popular destination for excursions and a focal point for local social life. However, the inn ceased to exist around the mid-point of the 20th century.
Following World War II, the location was transformed into training grounds for the military, whose former presence can still be felt today in the form of trenches traversing the terrain. The army's use of heavy machinery, slash-and-burn land clearance, and large-scale movement by foot kept the area deforested. A few years after the Soviet troops had left, the Czech Union for Nature Conservation began to take care of the site. "Since 1999, there have been on-going efforts to rescue its rare thermophilic meadows from extinction. A host of endangered plant and animal species depend on the continued absence of forest cover: reptiles, amphibians, birds – and above all 49 species of butterflies," says Adrián Czernik, chairman of the local chapter of the Czech Union for Nature Conservation. Here you may encounter, for instance, the endangered Mazarine Blue, the Purple-shot Copper, or the gorgeous Old World Swallowtail. Several species of orchids thrive at this site, represented, e.g. by the Early-purple Orchid or the Common Twayblade.
The starting point of the three-kilometre educational trail is the "Krnov, Pod Ježníkem" bus stop. The site features nine information panels, with three interactive elements, and five benches for the weary hiker. Visitors are told more about the history of Kabát's Hill and its natural treasures and points of interest, and from a scenic outpost afford a view of the nearby Our Lady of Chomýž funerary chapel.
This educational trail is already the 84th site made accessible by the Czech Union for Nature Conservation (ČSOP) with the financial support of the NET4GAS Closer to Nature programme, and the twelfth of its kind in the Moravian-Silesian region. NET4GAS has been acting as ČSOP's general partner since 2007.
