Pravčická brána

Pravčická brána is a bridge of pale sandstone thrown across the sky above the forests of Bohemian Switzerland, and it is the largest natural arch of its kind on the European mainland. The opening spans 26.5 metres and rises 16 metres beneath the crown, while the deck of rock above it is roughly eight metres wide and, at its thinnest, only about two and a half to three metres thick. Seen from the terraces beside it, the arch looks less like a geological accident than a piece of deliberate architecture, a lintel laid across two pillars of rock at around 447 metres above sea level.

The stone is Cretaceous sandstone, laid down on the floor of a sea that once covered this part of Central Europe. As the sea retreated, the Elbe and its tributaries cut deep valleys into the soft rock, leaving steep walls and isolated towers. Weathering then worked on one of those walls from both sides, hollowing overhangs until the rock finally broke through, leaving the span that stands today. It belongs to the Elbe Sandstone Mountains, a landscape of rock towers and gorges that straddles the Czech–German border, and it is the most striking single form in it.

People have been coming to admire it for two centuries. A simple inn stood here from 1826, and in 1881 Prince Edmund Clary-Aldringen, who owned the estate, had a larger building put up in the lee of the cliffs: the Sokolí hnízdo, or Falcon's Nest, a fifty-bed hotel set against the rock that still serves visitors as a restaurant. Clary-Aldringen also laid out walking paths and boat trips through the nearby Edmund Gorge, turning the area into one of the first organised nature destinations in Europe. For generations visitors walked across the top of the arch itself, but cracks and erosion led to a ban in 1982, and today the span is admired from viewing platforms in the surrounding rocks. The arch became a national natural monument in 1992 and today lies within České Švýcarsko National Park. Its silhouette also appears in the landscape shots of the 2005 film The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

The approach is part of the pleasure. The red-marked Gabriel Trail climbs through the woods of the valley, and the last stretch to the arch threads through small rock passages and galleries. From the viewpoints the eye runs out over a sea of forest broken by rock towers, with the Elbe valley somewhere below.

Getting there

The arch stands about 3 km northeast of the village of Hřensko, on the Elbe at the German border, and roughly 12 km from the town of Děčín. The nearest airport is Dresden (DRS), about 45 km away across the border; Václav Havel Airport Prague (PRG) is roughly 87 km away. Buses run from Děčín to Hřensko and to Mezní Louka, and from the German side a ferry crosses the Elbe from Schöna station to Hřensko. The arch can only be reached on foot: follow the red-marked trail up from Hřensko, or take the longer ridge walk of about 6.5 km from Mezní Louka. Parking is allowed only in the designated lots in Hřensko and at Mezní Louka.