The Upper Svratka Highlands ( cs, Hornosvratecká vrchovina, german: Hohe Schwarza Bergeland) is a

mountain range A mountain range or hill range is a series of mountains or hills arranged in a line and connected by high ground. A mountain system or mountain belt is a group of mountain ranges with similarity in form, structure, and alignment that have ari ...

Moravia Moravia ( , also , ; cs, Morava ; german: link=yes, Mähren ; pl, Morawy ; szl, Morawa; la, Moravia) is a historical region in the east of the Czech Republic and one of three historical Czech lands, with Bohemia and Czech Silesia. 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 ...

. The

Highland Highlands or uplands are areas of high elevation such as a mountainous region, elevated mountainous plateau or high hills. Generally speaking, upland (or uplands) refers to ranges of hills, typically from up to while highland (or highlands) is ...

s, together with the

Křižanov Highlands The Křižanov Highlands ( cs, Křižanovská vrchovina, german: Krischanauer Bergland) is a highland and a geomorphological mesoregion of the Czech Republic. It is located mostly in the Vysočina Region. Geomorphology The Křižanov Highlands ...

threshold, form the Western-Moravian part of

Moldanubian Zone The Moldanubian Zone is in the regional geology of Europe a tectonic zone formed during the Variscan or Hercynian Orogeny (400 to 300 million years ago, during the Devonian and Carboniferous periods). The Moldanubian Zone crops out in the Boh ...

– east south part of

Bohemian Massif The Bohemian Massif ( cs, Česká vysočina or ''Český masiv'', german: Böhmische Masse or ''Böhmisches Massiv'') is a geomorphological province in Central Europe. It is a large massif stretching over most of the Czech Republic, eastern Ger ...

Geography

The Upper Svratka

s rise to the north of the

Tišnov Tišnov (; german: Tischnowitz) is a town in Brno-Country District in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 9,200 inhabitants. Administrative parts Villages of Hajánky, Hájek, Jamné and Pejškov are administrative parts ...

between Lomnice u Tišnova, and the Svratka in the north. The

s have an area of and an average height of . The highest peak is ''Devět skal'' at ; other peaks are ''Žákova hora'' ''Pohledecká skála'' , ''Horní les'' , ''Harusův kopec'' , ''Přední skála'' , or ''Sýkoř'' . The northwestern part is formed by

Žďárské vrchy Žďárské vrchy (german: Saarer Bergland) is a mountain range in the Czech Republic. It is located in the northwest part of Upper Svratka Highlands which is part of Bohemian-Moravian Highlands and has an area of 485.78 sq km. The highest peak ...

mountain range. To the southeast is the Boskovice Furrow in the mid-

n part of the

Brno Highlands The Brno Highlands ( cs, Brněnská vrchovina, german: Brünner Bergland) is a mountain range in the South Moravian Region in the Czech Republic. The highlands, together with the Jevišovice Highlands threshold, form the South-Moravian part of ...

as well and in the east the

Svitavy Uplands The Svitavy Uplands or Svitavy Hills ( cs, Svitavská pahorkatina) are highland, uplands and a Geomorphological division of the Czech Republic, geomorphological mesoregion of the Czech Republic. It is located in the Pardubice Region and it belongs ...

. The Svratka river stream naturally established Bohemian-Moravian border, the other part of

Elbe The Elbe (; cs, Labe ; nds, Ilv or ''Elv''; Upper and dsb, Łobjo) is one of the major rivers of Central Europe. It rises in the Giant Mountains of the northern Czech Republic before traversing much of Bohemia (western half of the Czech Re ...

–

Danube The Danube ( ; ) is a river that was once a long-standing frontier of the Roman Empire and today connects 10 European countries, running through their territories or being a border. Originating in Germany, the Danube flows southeast for , pa ...

main European watershed The mountain range is 63% forested, though mainly by plantations -

spruce A spruce is a tree of the genus ''Picea'' (), a genus of about 35 species of coniferous evergreen trees in the family Pinaceae, found in the northern temperate and boreal (taiga) regions of the Earth. ''Picea'' is the sole genus in the subfam ...

maple ''Acer'' () is a genus of trees and shrubs commonly known as maples. The genus is placed in the family Sapindaceae.Stevens, P. F. (2001 onwards). Angiosperm Phylogeny Website. Version 9, June 2008 nd more or less continuously updated since h ...

beech Beech (''Fagus'') is a genus of deciduous trees in the family Fagaceae, native to temperate Europe, Asia, and North America. Recent classifications recognize 10 to 13 species in two distinct subgenera, ''Engleriana'' and ''Fagus''. The ''Engl ...

es, elmeses. The forests are in well condition. The primary composition of the range is

cretaceous The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 145 to 66 million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era, as well as the longest. At around 79 million years, it is the longest geological period of ...

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained ( phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies un ...

migmatite Migmatite is a composite rock found in medium and high-grade metamorphic environments, commonly within Precambrian cratonic blocks. It consists of two or more constituents often layered repetitively: one layer is an older metamorphic rock th ...

orthogneiss Gneiss ( ) is a common and widely distributed type of metamorphic rock. It is formed by high-temperature and high-pressure metamorphic processes acting on formations composed of igneous or sedimentary rocks. Gneiss forms at higher temperatures an ...

amphibole Amphibole () is a group of inosilicate minerals, forming prism or needlelike crystals, composed of double chain tetrahedra, linked at the vertices and generally containing ions of iron and/or magnesium in their structures. Its IMA symbol is ...

granodiorite Granodiorite () is a coarse-grained ( phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock similar to granite, but containing more plagioclase feldspar than orthoclase feldspar. The term banatite is sometimes used informally for various rocks ranging from gr ...

gabbro Gabbro () is a phaneritic (coarse-grained), mafic intrusive igneous rock formed from the slow cooling of magnesium-rich and iron-rich magma into a holocrystalline mass deep beneath the Earth's surface. Slow-cooling, coarse-grained gabbro is ...

and

quartz Quartz is a hard, crystalline mineral composed of silica ( silicon dioxide). The atoms are linked in a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon-oxygen tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tetrahedra, giving an overall chemical f ...

slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. It is the finest grained foliated metamorphic rock. ...

. Often

gneis Gneiss ( ) is a common and widely distributed type of metamorphic rock. It is formed by high-temperature and high-pressure metamorphic processes acting on formations composed of igneous or sedimentary rocks. Gneiss forms at higher temperatures an ...

. Soil horizon – mainly

cambisol A Cambisol in the World Reference Base for Soil Resources (WRB) is a soil in the beginning of soil formation. The horizon differentiation is weak. This is evident from weak, mostly brownish discolouration and/or structure formation in the soil pr ...

.Structure and Functioning of Seminatural Meadows
/ref> The rivers Svratka, , , among others, originate here.

Population

The area is relatively sparsely populated (in terms of the Czech Republic). The largest towns in the Upper Svratka Highlands are

Nové Město na Moravě Nové Město na Moravě (; german: Neustadt in Mähren) is a town in Žďár nad Sázavou District in the Vysočina Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 9,800 inhabitants. It is known as a winter sports resort. The historic town centre is we ...

(partly),

Bystřice nad Pernštejnem Bystřice nad Pernštejnem (; german: Bistritz ob Pernstein) is a town in Žďár nad Sázavou District in the Vysočina Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 7,800 inhabitants. Administrative parts Villages of Bratrušín, Divišov, Doman� ...

Kunštát Kunštát (; german: Kunstadt) is a town in Blansko District in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 2,800 inhabitants. Administrative parts Villages of Hluboké u Kunštátu, Rudka, Sychotín, Touboř and Újezd are adm ...

, Olešnice and Bystré.

Gallery

Vodní-nádrž-Vír-z-kopce-mezi-Hlubokým-a-Veselím2001b.jpg, View across the Vír Reservoir Drátník - věž Sokol1.jpg, Devět skal rock Pernštejn (letecký snímek).jpg,

Pernštejn Castle Pernštejn Castle ( cs, hrad Pernštejn, from german: Bernstein, originally from ''Bärenstein'') is a castle in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. It lies on a rock above the village of Nedvědice and the rivers Svratka and Nedv� ...

Lomnice podzim.jpg, Lomnice u Tišnova - the most southern part of Upper Svratka Highlands Kostel v Doubravníku2.JPG, Mausoleum of the Pernštejn family in

Doubravník Doubravník is a market town in Brno-Country District in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 800 inhabitants. The historic centre is well preserved and is protected by law as an Cultural monument (Czech Republic)#Monument ...

Lomnice delfinka.jpg, Lomnice Vitochov 2007.jpg, Vítochov surrounding Svratka - golfové hřiště.JPG, Svratka surrounding

Geography

Population

Gallery

References

Further reading