- Jizera Mountains
The Jizerske Mountains fill the north in Bohemia's ring of border mountains. They meet the Luzicke (Lusatian) Mountains in the west, and in the east continually merge into the Krkonose (Giant Mountains), the highest Czech mountain range. The Czech-Polish border runs through them and they consist of several crests, hills of which peak moderately over 1,000 metres above sea level. The highest one, Smrk 1,124 metres, is also the highest mountain in the Czech part of the Jizerske Mountains.
Once nearly fully wooded, originally with mixed, later with coniferous woods, they resembled a moonscape with the torsi of dead trees in the 1970s and 1980s due to emissions from Polish and German power plants but also from Czech own sources. Life has slowly been coming back to the Jizerske Mountains since the 1990's and vast majority of the areas of cleared covers are being forested again. The Jizerske Mountains are also a lasting symbol of Czech-German co-existence. Both nations have been depending on each other, they have lived side by side and in the whole century of living together just shortly against each other; unfortunately, with tragic consequences, only slowly reversible.
The importance and function of the Jizerske Mountains were changing in the course of centuries. From the early energy resource for rising industry (wood-processing, cloth-making, glass-making, jewellery-making) they have now grown into one of the most significant recreational regions of the Czech Republic. They link a number of large as well as small towns, which often became notable just because of them; Liberec in the west, Jablonec nad Nisou in the central part, and Tanvald, Desna, Korenov in the east.
The Jizerske Mountains always were and still are rich in rain and snowfall; there are few places with so much rain as there. Even this, as a matter of paradox, adds to the attractiveness of the area for a tourist; unusual peat and lagoon formations are produced in summer, and in winter, which is often six months long, ideal conditions for skiing.
Photos by HIHI.