Ostrá: Nature, Castle Ruins and Trails Along the Elbe

Ostrá offers several clearly distinct themes for a trip: the Mydlovarský luh natural area, the history of Mydlovar Castle ruins and marked trails along the Elbe. These highlights can be considered separately when planning your visit. If you are interested in the floodplain landscape, the nature reserve offers a specific landscape feature; at the castle, the focus is on its construction and surviving structures. The hiking trails, in turn, have their own routes and points of reference. You can therefore plan your stay around whichever theme first brings you to Ostrá.

Alluvial Forest and Wetlands

The Mydlovarský luh Nature Reserve lies partly within the cadastral area of Ostrá and is one of the last remaining alluvial forest complexes in the Elbe region. It protects alluvial forests, former Elbe channels, wetlands, mown meadows and the naturally meandering Farský potok stream. The natural area therefore comprises not only forest, but also watercourses, wetland areas and open meadows. These varied features give the reserve a diverse landscape character. If you would like to focus primarily on nature and landscapes during your trip, Mydlovarský luh offers a specific point of interest in Ostrá.

Mydlovar Castle Ruins and Stone Museum

Mydlovar Castle was founded around the second half of the 13th century and was already recorded as abandoned before 1561. It is a rare castle built entirely of brick and featuring a perimeter wall. What remains includes an oval fortified area with several water-defence systems, as well as remnants of the masonry. These features describe different aspects of the site: its shape, fortifications and surviving building fabric. Together with the approximate date of its founding, they provide a historical and architectural impression of the castle.

The Libuše Tržická Stone Museum in Ostrá offers a different historical focus. It displays several dozen stones from the 19th and 20th centuries. The castle and the museum thus represent distinct historical points of reference: Mydlovar for its medieval founding and surviving structures, and the museum for a collection spanning two later centuries. If you are interested in culture and history, you can keep these differences in mind when planning your visit rather than treating both themes as belonging to the same period.

Two Marked Hiking Trails

The blue-marked hiking trail runs through the southern part of Ostrá, loops around the bathing water on its eastern shore, and passes through the holiday settlement of Buda on the right bank of the Elbe and through Mydlovarský luh. The yellow-marked hiking trail follows the right bank of the Elbe from the holiday settlement of Buda to the bridge over the river in Lysá nad Labem. Buda and the right bank of the Elbe are therefore shared points of reference in the route descriptions, while the stated routes offer different destinations and landscape features. The blue trail passes through the nature reserve; the bridge in Lysá nad Labem is the stated endpoint of the yellow trail. Before setting out, you can check trail markings and conditions, as these may change.

Getting There and Planning

Ostrá railway station is on the Prague–Lysá nad Labem–Kolín line and provides access to Botanicus. If you plan to visit Botanicus, check the current timetable, as train schedules may change. When looking for a hotel in Ostrá, it helps to decide on the main focus of your trip first: the floodplain landscape, the construction history of Mydlovar or one of the marked trails.

Discover more destinations: Netřebice, Vlkov Pod Oškobrhem, Žitovlice, Choťánky, Vykáň, Rozdalovice, Velenice, Vrbová Lhota.

Back to the regional travel overview: Okres Nymburk.