Teplice, rock town in the North - Czech Republic

Teplice, the rock town in the North of the Czech Republic
Rock towers reaching into the sky, gigantic sandstone bastions
One of the most beautiful and unique landscapes in the Czech Republic is the impressive region of rock towns in Adršpach-Teplice. Teplické skální mĕsto, i.e. the rock town of Teplice, is located near Teplice, one of the two distinct rock towns of the sandstone kingdom near the Polish border in northeastern Bohemia. Of the two, this is the less visited sandstone region, although it boasts equally impressive rock formations. You have to walk a little more than at the Adršpach rocks, but the crowds are much more manageable.
The length of the tour: 5.5 km
Duration of the tour: 3 hours
Difference in level: 230 m up, the same down
Starting point: Teplice nad Metují, approx. 2 km west, a large paid parking lot next to the road to Adršpach. Parking (day ticket): car: 50 Kč, motorbike: 30 Kč
Nature of the tour:
An easy walking tour on well-marked tourist paths, in some places the path is dotted with steps, narrow rock corridors, and pallos. You have to climb the long, hair-raising iron steps and ladders to the former rock fortress, it is not recommended for the physically challenged, but this detour can be skipped.
Description of the tour
The parking lot is bordered by a few guesthouses and restaurants, and Teplické skaly, the entrance to the rock town with the cash office building, is a few steps away. The presentation trail is marked with blue stripes throughout, the first few hundred meters section is on a pleasant walking path, in a cozy pine forest, in the really stony valley of the Skalní potok (Stone stream). At the junction with the road sign, we turn left following the Blue signs, the Yellow road leads through the Farkas ditch to the Adršpach rocks.
Climbing out of the valley, the first larger sandstone towers appear, and then we arrive at the bottom of the long line of iron steps leading to the Střmen mountain fortress. The rock fortress of medieval origin is led up by an endless series of stairs, the last section is a steep iron ladder. We don't see many traces of the old castle built on the top of the high rocks, but the view from the top of the rock bastions is captivating.
After climbing down from the fortress, continuing on our way, we reach the next interesting rock formation, the Szikla Kapu, on which a plaque commemorating Goethe's visit in 1790 was placed. The year 1824 was carved into the rock on the left. In this year, a huge forest fire that lasted for weeks consumed the surrounding forests, thus revealing the previously impassable rock labyrinth for the first time.
Small multilingual signs draw attention to the different rock formations with fantastic names, among others we will pass by the characteristically shaped Fejsze and then the famous Szikla Menyasszony. A long flight of stairs follows, which leads up to a small area where we find a wooden house, the completely smooth walled rock called Őtorony towering above it is one of the great challenges for rock climbers.
In front of the house, the road splits in two, from here the approx. A 2 km long circuit that connects the most beautiful parts of the rock town. Let's start on the branch on the left, we will go past huge, vertical rock walls next to the stairs, and soon we will reach a gigantic, impressively beautiful rock quarry, Nagy Dóm Tér. This is perhaps the most beautiful part of the rock city, our path cuts through narrow crevices in some places, in the shadow of 70 m high rock towers, at the base of vertical rock walls, we step deeper and deeper into the peculiar rock kingdom.
We reach the highest point of our journey at the sharp right turn of the loop road marked blue, from here we descend on steps with sandy soil, at the bottom of characteristic rock bastions, back to the main route. At the fork, you can take a nap on the benches admiring the famous rock needle, the Giant's Toothpick. From here, turning left onto the green marked road, we can take a longer tour that leads through the quieter but very spectacular part of the rock town. Details here! We turn right onto the road marked Blue, we walk along a comfortable sidewalk, and soon the imposing Polar Bear rock formation appears on the left.
A rock gate made of stone indicates one of the most special attractions of the Teplice rock city, the narrow, dark rock canyon with the fantasy name of Siberia, which is a terrifying crevasse between 40-50 m high, mossy rock walls, only one meter wide in several places. We walk on pallets through the canyon, which is often snowy even in summer and hardly sees sunlight, the temperature is low even on the hottest days, as if we are entering a refrigerator.
Leaving the crevasse, we reach the fork in a few minutes, with the wooden house, from where we walk back to our starting point along the already known route.