The Environment Vrchlabi

A busy industrial town and a center for most of the area of foot-hills of the Krkonose Mts. It is a gateway into the central part of the Krkonose Mts. and has a nice position in the valley of the Labe river.

On the side towards the mountains the valley is guarded by the hills Zaly, Strazna hura and Jankuv kopec.

There is also an important road junction (Liberec-Trutnov, Spindleruv Mlýn and so on) and the end of the branch of the railroad route Chlumec nad Cidlinou - Stara Paka - Trutnov in the town.

The town offers a good and frequent bus connection to Spindleruv Mlýn and other mountain centers in the Krkonose Mts. It is a good base for trips into interesting areas in the foot-hills of the Krkonose Mts.: Trutnov, Hostinne, Dvur Kralove, Baroque Kuks, Nova Paka and the rocks of Adrspach and Prachov.

The seat of the administration of KrkonoSe National Park and this organization's facilities (main Information Center, the Krkonose Museum) is also located here.

The establishment and development of a tiny settlement probably founded in the times of colonization of the foot-hills in the 13th century was connected with mining of iron ore and valuable metals (Labska gorge, Herlikovice and others). Vrchlabi gained the title of mining town on the 6th of September 1533 thanks to Christopher of Gendorf. The royal mining adminis. trator built a Renaissance castle here which was rebuilt many times in the fol- lowing periods.

At the time of the Thirty Years' War it was owned by Albrecht of Waldstein who started production of weapons for his army here. After his death the district was bought by general Rudolf Morzin and it stayed in the hands of his descendants including the branch of Czernin-Morzin until 1945.

Mining and iron production levels slackened during the 19th century. The textile industry and production of machinery, cars and electrotechnics gained ground gradually.