Podyjí National Park
Podyjí National Park is located in the Czech Republic, in the South Moravian Region, at the border with Austria, roughly between the towns of Znojmo and Vranov nad Dyjí. Podyjí has an exceptionally preserved example of the original landscape around the river Dyje, which is an imaginary axis of the whole park. Its track across this area is almost 40 km long, 25 km of which make the common border between Austria and the Czech Republic. This area has not been affected by any construction of roads or recreational buildings, which has certainly contributed to the exceptional scenery. The entire territory is distinguished by the great diversity of plants and animals. In 1991 Podyjí was included in the worldwide network of national parks together with Krkonoše (National Park since 1963), Šumava (since 1991) and Czech Switzerland (since 2000). As the Podyjí National Park extends into the territory of two states, nature and landscape protection in this area cannot be considered a matter for only one of them. In Lower Austria, therefore, the Thayatal National Park was founded.
The most frequent types of tourism are hiking and cycling. (At present there are about 212 kilometres of cycle paths in the park area.) There are also 3 interesting tourist sites for physically handicapped visitors to the National Park, which are accessible by car. This is the area of the Nine Mills, and the site of “Príčky” as the starting point for the journey to “Nový Hrádek” and the Hardegg Viewing Platform. These routes, including the destinations provided with a car park, are marked with a wheelchair symbol.