Děvín () is a

double peak Double, The Double or Dubble may refer to: Mathematics and computing * Multiplication by 2 * Double precision, a floating-point representation of numbers that is typically 64 bits in length * A double number of the form x+yj, where j^2=+1 * A 2 ...

mountain in the

Pavlov Pavlov (or its variant Pavliv) may refer to: People *Pavlov (surname) (fem. ''Pavlova''), a common Bulgarian and Russian last name *Ivan Pavlov, Russian physiologist famous for his experiments in classical conditioning Places Czech Republic *Pavlo ...

municipality in the

South Moravian Region The South Moravian Region (; , ; ), or just South Moravia, is an Regions of the Czech Republic, administrative unit () of the Czech Republic, located in the south-western part of its historical region of Moravia. The region's capital is Brno, th ...

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 ...

. With an elevation of , it is the highest mountain of the Pavlov Hills within the

Mikulov Highlands The Mikulov Highlands () is a mountain range in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. The Highlands, together with the Waschberg Zone and Lower Austria Inselberg threshold, form the South-Moravian Carpathians. Geography The Mikulo ...

, and of the

Pálava Protected Landscape Area The Pálava Protected Landscape Area (abbreviated Pálava PLA; , abbreviated ''CHKO Pálava'') is a Landscape park (protected area), protected landscape area and a UNESCO biosphere reserve located in the South Moravian Region in the Czech Republic ...

. It is located right on trace where runs line of

drainage divide A drainage divide, water divide, ridgeline, watershed, water parting or height of land is elevated terrain that separates neighboring drainage basins. On rugged land, the divide lies along topographical ridges, and may be in the form of a single ...

of Upper

Thaya The Thaya (, ) is a river in the Czech Republic and Austria, a right tributary of the Morava (river), Morava River. It flows through the South Moravian Region in the Czech Republic and through Lower Austria in Austria. It is formed by the conflue ...

drainage Drainage is the natural or artificial removal of a surface's water and sub-surface water from an area with excess water. The internal drainage of most agricultural soils can prevent severe waterlogging (anaerobic conditions that harm root gro ...

and Thaya/Morava meso-level drainage.

History

The

summit A summit is a point on a surface that is higher in elevation than all points immediately adjacent to it. The topographic terms acme, apex, peak (mountain peak), and zenith are synonymous. The term (mountain top) is generally used only for ...

of Děvín has the remains of a huge Iron Age hill fort, while the ancient Amber Route runs neighbors of the mountains base, and all archaic roads in landscape, originally created by animals and later overtaken by humans. The area around base of the mountain is permanently settled longer than last 30,000 years. Since Cromagnos hunters, ower Celtic tribes settlement, Roman fortress,

Great Moravia Great Moravia (; , ''Meghálī Moravía''; ; ; , ), or simply Moravia, was the first major state that was predominantly West Slavic to emerge in the area of Central Europe, possibly including territories which are today part of the Czech Repub ...

hillfort A hillfort is a type of fortification, fortified refuge or defended settlement located to exploit a rise in elevation for defensive advantage. They are typical of the late Bronze Age Europe, European Bronze Age and Iron Age Europe, Iron Age. So ...

s (

Strachotín Strachotín is a municipality and village in Břeclav District in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 800 inhabitants. Geography Strachotín is located about northwest of Břeclav and south of Brno. It lies in the north ...

and Děvín).

Geology

The entire Děvín massif consists mainly by

Jurassic limestone The Jurassic ( ) is a Geological period, geologic period and System (stratigraphy), stratigraphic system that spanned from the end of the Triassic Period million years ago (Mya) to the beginning of the Cretaceous Period, approximately 143.1 Mya. ...

, i.e. series of rocks generated during

sedimentation Sedimentation is the deposition of sediments. It takes place when particles in suspension settle out of the fluid in which they are entrained and come to rest against a barrier. This is due to their motion through the fluid in response to th ...

. The body of the Děvín is strongly modulated, with outcrops and cliffs (klippe/crag) of pure, hard and white limestone of Later Jurassic origin, called Ernstbrunn limestone. Sedimentation of Ernstbrunn limestone was preceded by the sedimentation of grey calcareous Děvín-Kotel massif. Děvín

claystone Mudrocks are a class of fine-grained siliciclastic sedimentary rocks. The varying types of mudrocks include siltstone, claystone, mudstone and shale. Most of the particles of which the stone is composed are less than and are too small to ...

and clay limestone, called

Klentnice Klentnice () is a municipality and village in Břeclav District in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 500 inhabitants. Geography Klentnice is located about northwest of Břeclav and south of Brno. It lies in the Mikulo ...

layers. All the Pavlov Hills are situated at the margin of the flysch zone of the

Northern Limestone Alps The Northern Limestone Alps (), also called the Northern Calcareous Alps, are the ranges of the Eastern Alps north of the Central Eastern Alps located in Austria and the adjacent Bavarian lands of southeastern Germany. The distinction from the ...

and

Western Carpathians The Western Carpathians () are a mountain range and geomorphological province that forms the western part of the Carpathian Mountains. The mountain belt stretches from the Low Beskids range of the Eastern Carpathians along the border of Poland w ...

(South moravian carpathians). The flysch beds consist of strongly folded Lower Tertiary

sandstone Sandstone is a Clastic rock#Sedimentary clastic rocks, clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of grain size, sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate mineral, silicate grains, Cementation (geology), cemented together by another mineral. Sand ...

and conglomerate. During the periods of orogenetic activity in the

Tertiary Tertiary (from Latin, meaning 'third' or 'of the third degree/order..') may refer to: * Tertiary period, an obsolete geologic period spanning from 66 to 2.6 million years ago * Tertiary (chemistry), a term describing bonding patterns in organic ch ...

, large blocks of

Jurassic The Jurassic ( ) is a Geological period, geologic period and System (stratigraphy), stratigraphic system that spanned from the end of the Triassic Period million years ago (Mya) to the beginning of the Cretaceous Period, approximately 143.1 Mya. ...

and

Early Cretaceous The Early Cretaceous (geochronology, geochronological name) or the Lower Cretaceous (chronostratigraphy, chronostratigraphic name) is the earlier or lower of the two major divisions of the Cretaceous. It is usually considered to stretch from 143.1 ...

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wale ...

s were torn from their Jurassic base (now situated more lower - up to 2 km below the surface), and re-deposited over the younger flysch beds. In the Lower Badenian period (Upper Tertiary), the Pavlov Hills were surrounded by a warm sea. Pieces of Jurassic rock present in the littoral

gravel Gravel () is a loose aggregation of rock fragments. Gravel occurs naturally on Earth as a result of sedimentation, sedimentary and erosion, erosive geological processes; it is also produced in large quantities commercially as crushed stone. Gr ...

from that period indicate that limestone may have been already denuded at that time. At 15 Ma BP (before present) a strong subsidence formed the

Vienna Basin The Vienna Basin (, , , Hungarian: ''Bécsi-medence'') is a geologically young tectonic burial basin and sedimentary basin in the seam area between the Alps, the Carpathians and the Pannonian Plain. Although it topographically separates the Al ...

. During the following 9 Ma, up to 3 km thick layers of maritime and lacustrine

sediment Sediment is a solid material that is transported to a new location where it is deposited. It occurs naturally and, through the processes of weathering and erosion, is broken down and subsequently sediment transport, transported by the action of ...

s were deposited on its bottom.

Flora

Děvín as a whole eastern part of the

lies in the northwest promontory of the Panonian plain.Pavlov Hills Botanical excursion guide
/ref> It is the warmest and almost the most arid area in the Czech Republic, and therefore vines are cultivated here. Because of this climate some plant species that do not occur anywhere else in the country grow here. The colourful mosaic of arid rock grass, fringe tree communities,

thermophilous A thermophile is a type of extremophile that thrives at relatively high temperatures, between . Many thermophiles are archaea, though some of them are bacteria and fungi. Thermophilic eubacteria are suggested to have been among the earliest bacte ...

bushes A shrub or bush is a small to medium-sized perennial woody plant. Unlike herbaceous plants, shrubs have persistent woody stems above the ground. Shrubs can be either deciduous or evergreen. They are distinguished from trees by their multiple ...

and

oak An oak is a hardwood tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' of the beech family. They have spirally arranged leaves, often with lobed edges, and a nut called an acorn, borne within a cup. The genus is widely distributed in the Northern Hemisp ...

woods on the Děvín slopes, which originated partly due to the influence of grazing, is called karst forest steppe. The Děvín forest plateaus are dominated by sparse loess oakwoods together with a species-rich

herbaceous layer In ecology, stratification refers to the vertical layering of a habitat; the arrangement of vegetation in layers. It classifies the layers (sing. ''stratum'', pl. ''strata'') of vegetation largely according to the different heights to which their p ...

, while Panonian oak-

hornbeam Hornbeams are hardwood trees in the plant genus ''Carpinus'' in the family Betulaceae. Its species occur across much of the temperateness, temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. Common names The common English name ''hornbeam'' derives ...

dominates the north-facing slopes and valleys.

Riparian forest A riparian forest or riparian woodland is a forested or wooded area of land adjacent to a body of water such as a river, stream, pond, lake, marshland, estuary, canal, Sink (geography), sink, or reservoir. Due to the broad nature of the definitio ...

s with

pedunculate oak ''Quercus robur'', the pedunculate oak, is a species of flowering plant in the beech and oak family, Fagaceae. It is a large tree, native to most of Europe and western Asia, and is widely cultivated in other temperate regions. It grows on soi ...

s and narrow-leaved ashes and quite small areas of alluvial meadows have been preserved in the Dyje

floodplain A floodplain or flood plain or bottomlands is an area of land adjacent to a river. Floodplains stretch from the banks of a river channel to the base of the enclosing valley, and experience flooding during periods of high Discharge (hydrolog ...

in the vicinity of Křivé lake. Remains of halophytic vegetation, which occurred quite commonly on the salinated grazing land in South

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 ...

, still survive on the western bank of Nesyt pond near Sedlec. Summit is covered by

steppe In physical geography, a steppe () is an ecoregion characterized by grassland plains without closed forests except near rivers and lakes. Steppe biomes may include: * the montane grasslands and shrublands biome * the tropical and subtropica ...

meadow A meadow ( ) is an open habitat or field, vegetated by grasses, herbs, and other non- woody plants. Trees or shrubs may sparsely populate meadows, as long as they maintain an open character. Meadows can occur naturally under favourable con ...

pine A pine is any conifer tree or shrub in the genus ''Pinus'' () of the family Pinaceae. ''Pinus'' is the sole genus in the subfamily Pinoideae. ''World Flora Online'' accepts 134 species-rank taxa (119 species and 15 nothospecies) of pines as cu ...

wood and rock.

Top

A radio and

TV transmitter A television transmitter is a transmitter that is used for terrestrial (over-the-air) television broadcasting. It is an electronic device that radiates radio waves that carry a video signal representing moving images, along with a synchronized a ...

is situated on the top. The lower platform is used as an

observation tower An observation tower is a tower used to view events from a long distance and to create a full 360 degree range of vision to conduct long distance observations. Observation towers are usually at least tall and are made from stone, iron, and woo ...

. It was built in 1979–1980.

Gallery

Palava.od.SZ.JPG, View from

Dolní Kounice Dolní Kounice (; ) is a town in Brno-Country District in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 2,600 inhabitants. Geography Dolní Kounice is located about southwest of Brno. It lies in the Bobrava Highlands. The highest ...

Pálava-Kotel-a-Děvín.JPG, Vineyeards under Kotel and Děvín hills PalavaDub.jpg, Old oak beaten and formed by wind Pálava - u Soutěsky.jpg, Old route in the rock Pavlov.jpg, Outlook from Děvín summit to Pavlov village Klentnice - pohled 2009.jpg, Klentnice as viewed from Děvín

References

External links

Small-scale hikersmapPálava Protected Landscape Area
{{DEFAULTSORT:Devin Mountains and hills of the Czech Republic Mountain ranges of the Western Carpathians