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Bohemian Switzerland National Park is a protected area in the Ústí nad Labem Region on the border with Saxony. It is part of Bohemian-Saxon Switzerland, or the Elbe Sandstone Mountains, an area of approximately 700 km2 on both banks of the Elbe that includes the Bohemian Switzerland and Saxon Switzerland national parks as well as the protected landscape areas Labské pískovce and Saxon Switzerland. Because of its large extent, high forest cover and minimal settlement, the park administration describes the area as a unique sandstone territory without parallel in Europe.[1]
History of protection
The first efforts at protection go back to the 1920s. The first protected areas in Bohemian Switzerland, Edmundova soutěska, Pravčická brána and Tiské stěny, were created in 1933. The first proposal for large-scale protection was made in 1953 by Jan Čeřovský in a diploma thesis on the forests of the Děčínské stěny. Saxon Switzerland became a protected landscape area in 1956, and in 1963 the German writer Reimar Gilsenbach probably for the first time proposed a joint cross-border park.[2]
The Labské pískovce Protected Landscape Area, covering 300 km2, was declared by a decree of the ministry of culture of 27 June 1972. In 1973 the small protected areas Čabel, Nad Dolským mlýnem and Růžák were added on its territory, and in 1992 Babylon.[2]
After the establishment of Saxon Switzerland National Park in 1990, the possibility appeared of raising the protection of the core of the protected landscape area to national park status. Preparations began in 1991, and after long negotiations about the boundaries Bohemian Switzerland National Park was created with an area of 80 km2, established by Act No. 161/1999 Coll. A decree of the Ministry of the Environment approved in 2002 a zoning into three protection zones, with the first zone covering 1,736 ha. After the park's creation the Labské pískovce Protected Landscape Area has 245 km2 and four protection zones.[2] According to the park administration, documentation is being prepared for the creation of a UNESCO biosphere reserve that is to include the park and the protected landscape area, and the most valuable parts are being prepared for the NATURA 2000 system.[2]
Geology
The territory forms the northernmost part of the Bohemian Cretaceous Basin. Quartz sandstones predominate, in which a multitude of surface forms have arisen. The oldest rocks, the granites of the Lusatian Massif, formed 700 million years ago and surface only near the north-eastern boundary of the park, from Brtníky, Kopec and Mikulášovice.[3]
The sandstones formed in the period of the Upper Cretaceous sea more than 90 million years ago, when a layer of rock more than 1,000 m thick was deposited. The central part consists of a body of quartz sandstones of the Jizera Formation, 350 to 420 m thick and deposited in less than 3 million years, which covers most of the park. The older Bílá Hora Formation occurs only in the deeply incised valley of the Kamenice river.[3]
Volcanic hills and the Elbe canyon
In the Tertiary, intense volcanic activity took place in northern and north-western Bohemia. Mostly small subsurface bodies of basalt, phonolite and other rocks have been preserved, and today they form most of the significant hills. On the summits of some there are rock outcrops with hexagonal columnar jointing, and the slopes are covered with "stone seas".[3] The best known summits of volcanic origin include Růžovský vrch, the highest summit of the park, as well as Český vrch, Suchý vrch, Goliště, Mlýny, Sokolí vrch, Strážiště, Větrný vrch, Vosí vrch and Vlčí hora, which lies outside the sandstone bedrock.[3]
The combination of sandstone rocks with rounded basalt and phonolite knolls gives the landscape its character. The Elbe canyon, unique in Europe and cutting down into the crystalline bedrock, is according to the park administration the axis of the area with the highest biodiversity. The core of the area is formed by high forest cover and minimal settlement, whereas the adjoining protected landscape area is a harmonious cultural landscape with settlements and examples of folk architecture and small sacral monuments.[1]