The future Via Silva Nortica: Cycling from Vysočina through southern Bohemia to Melk
Plans are going ahead for the construction of Via Silva Nortica - a cycling path that will connect the Highlands, South Bohemia and Lower Austria. After almost two years of effort, all the land where the path will run has been secured and construction work can begin along individual stretches.
The Via Silva Nortica will pass through the picturesque countryside of the Highlands through South Bohemia and end in Melk, known as one of the pearls of the Danube. In addition to serving bike enthusiasts and holidaymakers, the scenic route will connect picturesque rural villages and make life easier for the locals who now often bike on stretches of the future route along unpaved dirt or grass roads. Jan Vlášek, director of the South Bohemian Cycle Paths Foundation, points out where the route will lead.
“The cycle path will start in Telč, lead towards Dačice, Slavonice and connect with the already built route towards Fratres. Our Austrian partners have promised to connect a few missing stretches and the route should end in Melk, Austria, on the Danube cycle path," he says.
Work on the project has been taking place for over a year, since it was necessary to acquire the land through which the route will run. Jan Vlášek says this was not always an easy process.
"In planning where the route will lead we always tried to stay on state-owned land, because the negotiations are generally easier there. But in some areas we had no choice but to negotiate with private owners."
Negotiations with individual landowners were undertaken by the town halls of the given locality. Hynek Blažek, the mayor of Slavonice, was in charge of the section from the border with Austria to Dačice.
"There are a lot of owners in our area; we have a lot of fragmented land, so the negotiations lasted for about a year. We approached about twenty-five owners. But when we explained what the project was in aid of and how useful it would be, 90 percent of them gave their permission fairly soon," he recalls.
However, negotiations with private owners were not always successful and at one point, the cycle path veers off course to avoid private land, necessitating last minute changes to the project.
Now all negotiations with landowners are over and the respective localities have filed for subsidies from the Interreg Fund and the Ministry for Regional Development. The planned budget for the South Bohemian stretch of the route amounts to 40 million crowns. The amount is similarly high in the Highlands.
If all goes according to schedule, the Via Silva Nortica long-distance cycle route should be completed by the end of 2028.
