Why this ride
A 231 km round trip from Žatec - roughly 4 h 00 in the saddle. On the way it passes Mědník Hill Mining Landscape, Jáchymov Mining Landscape, Karlovy Vary and The Red Tower of Death.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Žatec and The Red Tower of Death
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 231 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 4 h 00
- Journey
- Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
Scenic road chapters
Castle Road
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 25 km this is Castle Road, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Chapter facts
- Length
- 25 km
- Named road
- Castle Road
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Žatec
The smell gives Žatec away in late summer. The fields around this small town in northwestern Bohemia are planted with hops, tall green vines climbing up wires on wooden poles, and when harvest comes in August, the air fills with their resinous, slightly bitter scent. Saaz hops, named after the German form of the town's name, have been prized by brewers for centuries for their fine aroma, and they are a key ingredient in Czech pilsner lagers. In 2023, UNESCO inscribed Žatec and the Landscape of Saaz Hops, recognising the town's hop warehouses, drying kilns, packing houses and the surrounding hop gardens as a unique agricultural and industrial heritage.
Read the complete Žatec write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Žatec is where the day begins. Next is Mědník Hill Mining Landscape.
2. Mědník Hill Mining Landscape
Mědník is a small, steep hill on the Czech side of the Ore Mountains, or Krušné hory, the range that forms the border between Bohemia and Saxony. It rises above the village of Měděnec, whose name, like the hill's, comes from the Czech word for copper. For centuries, miners tunnelled into the hill for copper and iron ore, and the hill is now part of the Erzgebirge/Krušnohoří Mining Region, inscribed by UNESCO in 2019 as a cross-border site.
Read the complete Mědník Hill Mining Landscape write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Mědník Hill Mining Landscape comes up about 51 km into the recorded legs. Next is Jáchymov Mining Landscape.
3. Jáchymov Mining Landscape
The word dollar comes from this small town in the Ore Mountains. In the early sixteenth century, the silver mines of Jáchymov, then called Joachimsthal, were among the richest in Europe, and the coins minted here were called Joachimsthaler, shortened to thaler, which became daler and eventually dollar. The town grew rapidly, with thousands of miners, and it is now one component of the World Heritage inscription for the Erzgebirge mining region, shared between the Czech Republic and Germany. Its later history is darker and stranger.
Read the complete Jáchymov Mining Landscape write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 74 km into the recorded legs you reach Jáchymov Mining Landscape. Next is Karlovy Vary.
4. Karlovy Vary
Legend has it that Emperor Charles IV was out hunting in the forests of western Bohemia in the fourteenth century when a stag he was chasing, or in some versions one of his hounds, fell into a pool of scalding water, and that is how the hot springs of Karlovy Vary were found. Whatever the truth, the town that grew up around them bears his name, Karlsbad in German, and by the nineteenth century it had become one of the most fashionable spas in Europe, visited by tsars, composers, poets and the cream of European society. In 2021, it became part of the UNESCO listing of the Great Spa Towns of Europe.
Read the complete Karlovy Vary write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Karlovy Vary, about halfway. Next is The Red Tower of Death.
5. The Red Tower of Death
The name sounds like a horror film, and the reality was grim enough. In the 1950s, the communist government of Czechoslovakia sent tens of thousands of political prisoners to labour camps in the Jáchymov region to mine uranium for the Soviet nuclear programme. In a red brick building near Ostrov, known as the Red Tower of Death, prisoners crushed and sorted uranium ore by hand, without protection, exposed to dust and radiation. Many died or suffered lasting illness. The building is now a memorial, part of the Erzgebirge/Krušnohoří Mining Region World Heritage listing, and a powerful reminder of the human cost of the Cold War.
Read the complete The Red Tower of Death write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
The Red Tower of Death sits at 105 km, about halfway. Next is back through Karlovy Vary.
6. back through Karlovy Vary
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Karlovy Vary write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Karlovy Vary comes up about 135 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Jáchymov Mining Landscape.
7. back through Jáchymov Mining Landscape
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Jáchymov Mining Landscape write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 158 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Jáchymov Mining Landscape. Next is back through Mědník Hill Mining Landscape.
8. back through Mědník Hill Mining Landscape
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Mědník Hill Mining Landscape write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Mědník Hill Mining Landscape, late in the day. Next is Žatec.
9. Žatec
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Žatec write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
The route ends here after 231 km.
Leg by leg
Žatec to Mědník Hill Mining Landscape
Žatec → Mědník Hill Mining Landscape is 51 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Mědník Hill Mining Landscape to Jáchymov Mining Landscape
Mědník Hill Mining Landscape → Jáchymov Mining Landscape is 23 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Jáchymov Mining Landscape to Karlovy Vary
Jáchymov Mining Landscape → Karlovy Vary is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Karlovy Vary to The Red Tower of Death
Karlovy Vary → The Red Tower of Death is 17 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
The Red Tower of Death to back through Karlovy Vary
The Red Tower of Death → back through Karlovy Vary is 19 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Karlovy Vary to back through Jáchymov Mining Landscape
back through Karlovy Vary → back through Jáchymov Mining Landscape is 23 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Jáchymov Mining Landscape to back through Mědník Hill Mining Landscape
back through Jáchymov Mining Landscape → back through Mědník Hill Mining Landscape is 24 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Mědník Hill Mining Landscape to Žatec
back through Mědník Hill Mining Landscape → Žatec is 50 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.