Discover Horky Nad Jizerou

Horky Nad Jizerou combines a rich heritage along the Jizera with a protected floodplain ecosystem and a long-distance cycling route. The main points of interest are St. Nicholas Church, the castle on the site of a former wooden fort, and the oxbow lakes of Stará Jizera. This lets you explore the town through its architectural history while also understanding the landscape along the river.

Church, Ford and Castle History

The first written record of St. Nicholas Church, by a ford across the Jizera, dates from 1357. The castle’s history also leads back to this river crossing: it stands on the site of an old wooden fort that guarded an important ford. The connection with the ford thus appears both in the early record of the church and in the history of the fort site.

The present-day St. Nicholas Church was built as part of a project that ran from 1723 to 1738. Within this period, the Italian-born builder Mikuláš Rossi of Mladá Boleslav carried out construction work from 1723 to 1725. Reliefs from the workshop of Matyáš Braun are also part of the church. The dates distinguish the longer construction period from Rossi’s specifically dated work and provide a timeframe for the church’s history.

A four-sided stone tower is all that remains of the original Renaissance chateau. The castle contains a surviving tower from the Gothic fort, with a chapel on the first floor. In a Late Baroque chapel there is a Nativity painting from the first half of the 19th century by J. F. Leubner. The church complex includes the Kost Chapel and the former surrounding cemetery; this complex is listed as a protected immovable cultural monument. The area of the church and the fort or castle is also an archaeological site.

Stará Jizera and the River Landscape

Stará Jizera is a protected natural monument consisting of oxbow lakes in a meander loop of the Jizera between Dražice and Horky Nad Jizerou. It is one of the last remaining examples of a floodplain ecosystem along the Jizera. Two oxbow lakes, described as pools, have been preserved in the protected area. The larger one is named Stará Jizera and is horseshoe-shaped. These features make the river landscape tangible through its former river courses and the distinctive shape of the larger pool.

The protected area and the historic buildings represent different aspects of the town: the former concerns the surviving river channels and floodplain ecosystem, while the latter concerns the church, fort and castle. For planning your visit, it helps to keep these places geographically distinct: Stará Jizera lies in the meander loop between Dražice and Horky Nad Jizerou, while the historic buildings are tied to the town’s history.

Cycling Route and Visit Planning

Cycle Route 17 Greenway – Jizera runs along the banks of the Jizera through Horky Nad Jizerou. Its route leads from the Jizera’s confluence with the Elbe to Turnov. This lets you consider the town in the context of a longer river route; the route’s passage through Horky is a point of interest in its own right. The river landscape can thus be distinguished by its protected oxbow lakes and the course of the cycling route, without combining the two into a single destination.

The castle and associated buildings are currently used by a vocational school. Before visiting, therefore, check whether access is possible. For historical context, the information about the surviving tower, the chapel and the ford offers concrete points of reference, while the nature description focuses on the oxbow lakes and the meander loop.

Discover more destinations: Kosmonosy, Malé Horky, Muzsky, Mečeříž, Kosořice, Předměřice Nad Jizerou, Skalsko, Strážiště

For the broader travel overview: Okres Mladá Boleslav.