The Giant Mountains
General pieces of
information:
The Giant Mountains are the highest mountains in the Czech Republic.There is also situated the highest top of the CZ – the Snezka ( 1602 m), by the way, I´ve read somewhere that the very fisrt name of this mountain was Pahrbek Sněžný , ¨from the other tops, I would like to mention Černá hora, Žalí etc.
They are spread out in the Northeast Bohemia, on the border between the Czech Republic and Poland ( the polish part of the Giant Mountains is known for its numerous glacial lakes), there is also Snezka lying on the borderline,so if you decide to make a trip on Snezka, you had better have your passport with!
The general breadth is 631 km2 , the Czech part has about 454 km2 and the polish part has about 177 km2. The Giant Mountains and Jizerské hory are the rest of high mountains which arose in the Paleozoic Era.The deformation of rocks divided them into particular smaller parts.Arctic pack had covered northern foothills in the Modern Era and then only several changes happened and the moutains reached the present form.
The patron of the Giant Mountains is „Krakonoš“, who we know not only due to beer, which is brewed in Trutnov, but also because of the fairy tales narrated by our great-grandmothers….
National Park:
Due to its big natural resources was the area of the Giant Mountains in 17.5.1963 declared as the first national park in Czech Republic.It also belong to the international organization called the UNESCO.The Giant Mountain´s National Park is situated in the area of 548 km2 and it´s divided into 3 protected sectors.The government of the National Park is settled in the castle in Vrchlabí, which is interesting in having 4 towers ( like four seasons), 12 doors ( like months of year) and 52 windows (like weeks in one year).It is a very beautiful castle with gardens I enjoyed when I was a child, because there used to be a small zoo – there used to be many cages with owls and small predators, the cats and bob cats, and if you weren´t lazy you could go to a small tower, pass over a small wooden bridge and watch deer.It was a great show and above all everybody was allowed to walk everytime he wanted, because this all was for free.
I was born in the Giant Mountains and I´ve spent here every holiday along with my counsin who was in the group of protectionists, studied at the forestry school and worked for the government of the National Park.So I was allowed to get to some places, where the turists hardly ever get, because it´s may be very dangerous for those who don´t know landscape enough.