Česká Skalice, Babiččino údolí (Babiččino Valley)

Since 1981 there is an educational path to Rýzmburk. It has 7.5 km and 18 information boards and 7 literary and natural science stops. The path is in operation from May to October. In the Babiččino Valley you can seen the Ratibořice Chateau, the chateau park, manor mill and rolling press, manor inn, greenhouse, Rýzmburk Garden House, hunting pavilion, Viktorčin sluice, sculptural group Granny with Children and Staré bělidlo/Old Bleachery. 

Staré bělidlo/Old Bleachery

A wooden cottage covered with shingles of 1797. The Old Bleachery became scenery of Božena Němcová’s novel Babička. Also the Old Bleachery was after the year 1945 equipped with the old folklore furniture in accordance with the author’s story.

The Pankls never lived in the current Old Bleachery. Božena Němcová spent here a holiday with her children. The original manor bleachery was next to the old chateau greenhouse; when Kateřina Zaháňská had it demolished in 1830, she assigned to the Pankls a cellar two-room apartment. 

Ratibořice Chateau

Thanks to Babička (i.e. Granny – a famous novel) by Božena Němcová the chateau is well-known as a summer residence of Duchess Kateřina Zaháňská. Nowadays’ appearance of the chateau comes of the beginning of the 19th century, when Kateřina Zaháňská inherited from her father Náchod and Ratibořice. In 1811 she had the farmyard removed. She transformed a watering place for cattle into a lake. In the Ratibořické Valley, from Česká Skalice to Rýzmburk she established a vast English park passing in free nature with meadow underbrush, groups of trees, many roads and paths, alleys and bridges over the river. The building of the chateau has a rhomboidal ground plan, the ground floor and the first floor, from the hipped roof a narrow half storey protrudes.   

 

 

Česká Skalice

Monuments of Česká Skalice also include, among others: Museum of Božena Němcová, Museum of Textile, Barunka’s School and the monument of Božena Němcová.