Closer to Nature: new trail In the Tracks of the Leprechauns of Chomle and Vejvanov
For decades, people dug mineshafts into the local hillsides. Millions of tonnes of coal were brought to the surface. But come today and you will only find a few bumps in the terrain covered with hornbeam and birch; now, in autumn, you may want to collect a basketful of boletus, and marvel at how nature takes back what was once hers. This is the landscape around the villages of Chomle and Vejvanov in the district of Rokycany, and your guide through it is a new educational trail built by the Czech Union for Nature Conservation, marking the ninetieth site unlocked by the NET4GAS Closer to Nature programme.
The oldest reference to the mining of black coal near Radnice dates from the first half of the sixteenth century. Mining influenced local life and the landscape for almost four centuries, as did the gnomes, or leprechauns, which according to mining folklore were guarding the pits. The individual stations along this educational trail show where the mineshafts were located, where the spoil tips once were, and where the adit breached the surface. Historical photographs show what they looked like, allowing us to draw a comparison with what the place looks like today: forests, fields, gardens. Even the protected beaver, along with fire salamanders and common water frogs, has returned to this location. Only the youngest mine - which went by the name of "Pokrok" (Progress) - has left buildings behind. You will also find out why the soil near Pajzov is reddish in colour, and why the fields between Chomle and Vejvanov remain waterlogged after hard rainfall.
The educational trail "In the Tracks of the Leprechauns of Chomle and Vejvanov" is 4.5 kilometres long and runs from Chomle to Vejvanov. It features a total of nine stations. It is also the 90th location made accessible within the NET4GAS Closer to Nature programme, through which NET4GAS has been supporting nature conservation projects across the entire Czech Republic for the past twelve years.
To find out more about the NET4GAS Closer to Nature program and on the sites opened to public, please, visit www.closertonature.cz.