Rejvíz (; ) is a village and administrative part of Zlaté Hory in

Jeseník District Jeseník District () is a Okres, district in the Olomouc Region of the Czech Republic. Its capital is the town of Jeseník. With approximately 36,000 inhabitants, it is the least populated district of the Czech Republic. Administrative division Je ...

in the

Olomouc Region Olomouc Region (; , ; ) is an administrative unit () of the Czech Republic, located in the north-western and central part of its historical region of Moravia (''Morava'') and in a small part of the historical region of Czech Silesia (''České Sl ...

of the

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

. It is a popular tourist destination.

Geography

Rejvíz lies in the Zlatohorská Highlands and also extends into the Hrubý Jeseník mountain range in the south. It is located in the Jeseníky Protected Landscape Area. At an altitude of above sea level, it is the highest village of

Czech Silesia Czech Silesia (; ) is the part of the historical region of Silesia now in the Czech Republic. While it currently has no formal boundaries, in a narrow geographic sense, it encompasses most or all of the territory of the Czech Republic within the ...

Nature

Rejvíz is also name of a national nature reserve, which was officially founded in 1955 and covers 3.97 km². It is composed of the largest

peat bog A bog or bogland is a wetland that accumulates peat as a deposit of dead plant materials often mosses, typically sphagnum moss. It is one of the four main types of wetlands. Other names for bogs include mire, mosses, quagmire, and muske ...

Moravia Moravia ( ; ) is a historical region in the eastern Czech Republic, roughly encompassing its territory within the Danube River's drainage basin. It is one of three historical Czech lands, with Bohemia and Czech Silesia. The medieval and early ...

and

with small lakes of

glacial A glacier (; or ) is a persistent body of dense ice, a form of rock, that is constantly moving downhill under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries. It acquires ...

origin. Recent studies have found the Rejvíz bog to be one of the best preserved woody raised bog complexes in Central Europe as core sampling reveals its organic deposit started to accumulate nine thousands years ago or even earlier. An educational trail was opened in 1970 and leads from the Rejvíz Guesthouse to Velké mechové Lake in the western part of the nature reserve. It is 1.5 km long and there are six stops with information boards. Rejviz velke mechove jezirko

The area of Velké mechové Lake is 1,692 m². It is 68.5 m long and 41 m wide. Its depth is 2.95 m. Another lake, Malé mechové Lake, lies in the north-eastern part of the nature reserve. However, it is now completely overgrown with plants. The thickness of the peat layer is 6.6 m in this area, twice more than at Velké mechové Lake. Malé mechové Lake is not accessible to the public. The peat bog is very rich in

spider Spiders (order (biology), order Araneae) are air-breathing arthropods that have eight limbs, chelicerae with fangs generally able to inject venom, and spinnerets that extrude spider silk, silk. They are the largest order of arachnids and ran ...

s. Other species living here include

alpine newt The alpine newt (''Ichthyosaura alpestris'') is a species of newt native to continental Europe and Introduced species, introduced to Great Britain and New Zealand. Adults measure and are usually dark grey to blue on the back and sides, with an ...

, Carpathian newt and moor frog. Moorland clouded yellow and subarctic hawker are glacial

relict A relict is a surviving remnant of a natural phenomenon. Biology A relict (or relic) is an organism that at an earlier time was abundant in a large area but now occurs at only one or a few small areas. Geology and geomorphology In geology, a r ...

s. When the last

ice age An ice age is a long period of reduction in the temperature of Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental and polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers. Earth's climate alternates between ice ages, and g ...

ended many species moved to northern territories of Europe, but peat bogs provided good conditions for some of them here too. The area is surrounded with woods consisting mainly of

spruce A spruce is a tree of the genus ''Picea'' ( ), a genus of about 40 species of coniferous evergreen trees in the family Pinaceae, found in the northern temperate and boreal ecosystem, boreal (taiga) regions of the Northern hemisphere. ''Picea'' ...

s, which are replaced with

mountain pine ''Pinus mugo'', known as dwarf mountain pine, mountain pine, scrub mountain pine, Swiss mountain pine, bog pine, creeping pine, or mugo pine, is a species of conifer, native to high elevation habitats from southwestern to Central Europe and So ...

s towards the centre. The meadows are very rich in species of various plants. Among the most common ones there are

horsetails ''Equisetum'' (; horsetail) is the only living genus in Equisetaceae, a family of vascular plants that reproduce by spores rather than seeds. ''Equisetum'' is a "living fossil", the only living genus of the entire subclass Equisetidae, which f ...

, wood club-rush, '' Cirsium rivulare'' and meadowsweet. There are also a lot of rare species, such as few-flower sedge, fibrous tussock-sedge, flea sedge, tufted loosestrife or ''

Gladiolus ''Gladiolus'' (from Latin, the diminutive of ''gladius'', a sword) is a genus of perennial cormous flowering plants in the iris family (Iridaceae). It is sometimes called the 'sword lily', but is usually called by its generic name (plural ''g ...

imbricatus''. Many other plants can be seen at the moss lakes, for example ''

Sphagnum ''Sphagnum'' is a genus of approximately 380 accepted species of mosses, commonly known as sphagnum moss, also bog moss and quacker moss (although that term is also sometimes used for peat). Accumulations of ''Sphagnum'' can store water, since ...

'' moss,

cotton-grass ''Eriophorum'' (cottongrass, cotton-grass or cottonsedge) is a genus of flowering plants in the family Cyperaceae, the sedge family. They are found in the cool temperate, alpine, and Arctic regions of the Northern Hemisphere, primarily in the mi ...

, marsh Labrador tea and

carnivorous A carnivore , or meat-eater (Latin, ''caro'', genitive ''carnis'', meaning meat or "flesh" and ''vorare'' meaning "to devour"), is an animal or plant whose nutrition and energy requirements are met by consumption of animal tissues (mainly mu ...

common sundew.

History

The Czech name is a

Slavicisation Slavicisation or Slavicization, is the acculturation of something non-Slavic into a Slavic culture, cuisine, region, or nation. The process can either be voluntary or applied through varying degrees of pressure. The term can also refer to the ...

of the Moravian German place name. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, the German occupiers operated the E781

forced labour Forced labour, or unfree labour, is any work relation, especially in modern or early modern history, in which people are employed against their will with the threat of destitution, detention, or violence, including death or other forms of ...

subcamp of the Stalag VIII-B/344

prisoner-of-war camp A prisoner-of-war camp (often abbreviated as POW camp) is a site for the containment of enemy fighters captured as Prisoner of war, prisoners of war by a belligerent power in time of war. There are significant differences among POW camps, inte ...

for Allied POWs in the village.

Sights

The Rejvíz Guesthouse is a popular sight because of its wooden interior from the early 20th century, carved by its owners, the Brauner brothers. Its part are also chairs with carved faces of regular customers of that time. In the time of the communist regime it was called Nosek Cottage, after the first Czechoslovak communist Minister of Interior Václav Nosek.

References

External links

Rejvíz educational trailRejvíz Guesthouse
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rejviz Neighbourhoods in the Czech Republic Populated places in Jeseník District National nature reserves in the Czech Republic Bogs of the Czech Republic Tourist attractions in the Olomouc Region