Krásný Les (german: Schönwald) is a municipality and village in Karlovy Vary District in the Karlovy Vary Region of the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...

. It has about 300 inhabitants.

Administrative parts

Villages of Damice and Horní Hrad are administrative parts of Krásný Les.

Geography

Krásný Les is located about northeast of

Karlovy Vary Karlovy Vary (; german: Karlsbad, formerly also spelled ''Carlsbad'' in English) is a spa town, spa city in the Karlovy Vary Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 46,000 inhabitants. It lies on the confluence of the rivers Ohře and Teplá. ...

. It lies in the Ore Mountains. The highest point of the municipality is on the slopes of

Klínovec Klínovec (german: Keilberg) is the highest peak of the Ore Mountains, located in the Czech Republic's part of the mountains at . There is an 80 m TV broadcasting tower on the top of the mountain and a 24 meter high lookout tower. From the south ...

in an altitude of about . The highest peak is the mountain Meluzína with . The Ohře River forms the southern municipal border.

History

The first written mention of Krásný Les is from 1226. In the second half of the 13th century, the royal castle of Hauenštejn was founded, and Krásný Les became a part of the Hauenštejn estate. Prior to 1945, the village was mostly populated by

Germans , native_name_lang = de , region1 = , pop1 = 72,650,269 , region2 = , pop2 = 534,000 , region3 = , pop3 = 157,000 3,322,405 , region4 = , pop4 = ...

. As a result of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, the Germans were expelled and replaced with

Czechs The Czechs ( cs, Češi, ; singular Czech, masculine: ''Čech'' , singular feminine: ''Češka'' ), or the Czech people (), are a West Slavic ethnic group and a nation native to the Czech Republic in Central Europe, who share a common ancestry, c ...

. Between 1982 and 1992, Krásný Les was an administrative part of Ostrov.

Sights

The most notable monument is the Horní hrad Castle, also called Hauenštejn. It was probably founded in the second half of the 13th century, but there is also possibility that it was founded around 1320 by its first known owner, the

Loket Loket (; german: Elbogen) is a town of in Sokolov District in the Karlovy Vary Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 3,100 inhabitants. The town centre itself features Loket Castle, a 12th-century Gothic castle. The town centre is well prese ...

burgrave Mikuláš Winkler. In around 1600, during the rule of the Schlick family, after the castle was damaged by a fire, it was rebuilt in the Renaissance style. In 1878–1882, Ferdinand Bucquoy had the castle rebuilt in the English

Gothic Revival style Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

. In the mid-20th century, the castle became a ruin, but was reconstructed at the end of the 20th century, and today it is open to the public. The castle also includes an

arboretum An arboretum (plural: arboreta) in a general sense is a botanical collection composed exclusively of trees of a variety of species. Originally mostly created as a section in a larger garden or park for specimens of mostly non-local species, man ...

and

botanical garden A botanical garden or botanic gardenThe terms ''botanic'' and ''botanical'' and ''garden'' or ''gardens'' are used more-or-less interchangeably, although the word ''botanic'' is generally reserved for the earlier, more traditional gardens, an ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Krasny Les Villages in Karlovy Vary District Villages in the Ore Mountains