The Zábrdka Valley

A walk through some parts of the Zábrdka Valley is a wonderful experience that calms the soul. All you listen to is the sound of the water and the wind in the branches. The middle part of the valley is almost empty. The Zábrdka River is often lined with rock outcrops. Our ancestors carved many a room in them. You can see several of them near the former Zourovský mlýn or at Nová mlýn (Růtův mlýn). Rooms can also be found near the found pub Na Pince pod Cetenovem. Let’s visit one of them. Perhaps there we will better realize the sometimes difficult fate of the people who carved them.

In the central part of the Zábrdka valley, northwest of the village of Strážište, there are extensive natural outcrops of very soft calcareous sandstone of the Jizera Formation with lenses and inserts of hard calcareous sandstone, with abundant fossils and ichnofossils. The outcrops are rock defiles about 1 km long and up to 20 m high. The peculiarity of the rock defile are small rock towers and several caves, which are closer in shape to karst phenomena than to pseudo-karst clefts.