Grandmother's Valley

Babicka - Grandmother - was written by Bozena Nemcova in 1855 and is the most read Czech novel there is, set in the Upa valley at Ratiborice where she spent part of her childhood, and the valley has been called Babiccino udoli since. The buildings the book describes are there: Stare belidlo, the Old Bleachery, where the grandmother lives; the water mill; Viktorka's weir; the chateau where the duchess of the novel stays, a small Empire house of the 1790s with furnished rooms; and Ruzin's cottage. They are laid out along about three kilometres of valley path with the river, meadows and old trees between them. A bronze group of the grandmother with the children stands on the meadow. Czech visitors come for the book; anyone else gets a very pleasant river valley with well-kept nineteenth-century rural buildings in it.

What to look for

• The Old Bleachery - the cottage where the grandmother lives in the novel.
• A working water mill - and Viktorka's weir further down the valley.
• An Empire chateau - the duchess's house, furnished, of the 1790s.
• Three kilometres of valley path - meadows and old trees along the Upa.

When to go

May to September. A day.

Practical notes

The buildings are ticketed individually and seasonally. The valley is very busy on summer weekends. Without the novel the associations mean little - the landscape has to carry it.

Nearby

Ceska Skalice has the Nemcova museum; Nove Mesto nad Metuji is north.