New river port in Melnik to attract more foreign tourists

The historic town of Melnik north of Prague has a lot to offer to visitors. Its history goes back to the 9th century and in the 13th century Melnik along with its castle became a dowry town of Czech queens. During the reign of Emperor Charles IV Melnik became the centre of wine growing in the Czech Lands and there are vineyards to this day. As of next year the town hopes to welcome plenty more tourists from abroad, as a brand new river port is going to be built there, connecting Melnik directly with Germany via the river Elbe.

The town of Melnik is situated on the confluence of the two largest Czech rivers: the Vltava and the Elbe. Despite that fact, the town does not have a river port for passenger transport. Melnik's mayor Miroslav Neumann.

"We always wanted to build a river port close both to the confluence and the historic centre of Melnik. Now our dream is about to come true. A German travel agency which owns a luxury boat wants to launch regular cruises between Berlin, Melnik and Prague next year in April and build a landing stage for that purpose."

The cruise from Berlin to Melnik, via the German cities of Magdeburg and Dresden, will take eight days. From Melnik, visitors will be able to travel further to Prague, but Melnik's mayor Miroslav Neumann says he would like to encourage them to stay in Melnik as long as possible.

"I'm glad that this whole project is a joint effort in our town. We are cooperating with the local noble Lobkowitz family, who are planning to build a hotel right next to the river port. Leisure time and sports facilities will follow soon. It's important to offer something else to the tourists, not just our history."

Czech mythology says that the fertile Melnik region charmed the first Czechs so much that they decided to settle there. If all goes well, foreign tourists as well as Czechs will soon be able to admire the natural beauties as well as the historic monuments of the Melnik region from a totally new perspective - on board ship.