Tajemné stezky - Soutěskami Českého krasu – Dvořák Otomar (2020)

On the outskirts of Prague begins an area of wildly torn rocks, deep ravines, and cave labyrinths. It stretches westward and ends beyond Beroun. Water has shaped the pliable limestone deposits of prehistoric seas, creating a landscape reminiscent of some romantic scenes from the Balkans; thus, this part of Central Bohemia has been named Český kras after the famous Slovenian mountain range, Kras. This book will take us to the fairy-tale castle of Karlštejn, the monastery in the shadow of a giant cliff in Sv. Jan pod Skalou, the ancient settlement of Tetín, or the extensive Koněpruské caves with a workshop of medieval coin counterfeiters, but above all, it will reveal corners unjustly overlooked. We will see caves where the hermits St. Prokop and St. Ivan fought a victorious battle against the powers of hell, listen to legends about the terrifying phantom of the abandoned quarries of Hansi Hagen around campfires, descend with cavers to the bottom of a chasm and discover strange, inexplicable traces, refresh ourselves with water from miraculous karst springs, sit with film stars of the 1930s on the Barrandov terraces, ponder the mysterious circumstances surrounding the murder of St. Ludmila, and at the grave of the 'rose of Tetín,' remember the unfulfilled love of a young man...