Discover Bela Nad Svitavou: Churches, Pilgrimage and Landscape

Bela Nad Svitavou between Baroque Art and Landscape

Bělá nad Svitavou combines a clearly recognizable local history with nature destinations and a route for cyclists. The Church of All Saints is particularly distinctive: it is a Baroque church built between 1751 and 1770. This creates a cultural focus for travel planning that can be conceptually distinguished from the cycling and landscape experiences described later.

The Church of All Saints and Living Tradition

The main altar of the Church of All Saints is adorned with a painting by the artist Josef Scheivl. A fresco from 1928 depicts Saint Elisabeth of Thuringia distributing bread to poor people. Historical details can also be found outside the church interior: near the entrance to the sacristy stands a statue of Saint John of Nepomuk from 1768, while a stone cross from 1811 stands in front of the church. The memorial to the victims of the First World War stands in a linden park near the Church of All Saints.

The traditional pilgrimage of Bělá nad Svitavou has its own distinctive place in time. It takes place every year on the third Sunday after Easter to mark the consecration of the Church of All Saints. At the 2026 pilgrimage, the program included amusement rides and other fairground attractions for children and adults. Those traveling with different age groups will therefore find here, alongside the religious occasion, a clearly documented event-related aspect.

Local History with Serious Memorial Sites

The history of the locality also includes quiet memorial sites. The mass grave in the cemetery of Bělá nad Svitavou contains the remains of 42 Jewish people who died during transport from Poland to Schindler’s factory in Brněnec. The local cemetery also contains the grave of paratrooper Ivan Banděrev. These sites complement the destination’s Baroque and festive character with a historical dimension that can be taken into account when planning an individual excursion.

Čertova díra and Destinations for Active Days

Čertova díra is a distinctive landscape feature. The 115-meter-long and 12-meter-deep pseudokarst fissure cave lies in Cretaceous marlstones of the Jizera Formation and is among the longest caves of its kind in the Czech Republic formed in Cretaceous rock. One of the three entrances is located in a rock face shaped by quarrying approximately 40 meters above the valley floor of the Bělský stream valley. Its exact dimensions and distinctive geological classification make the cave an independent nature-related topic alongside the church and pilgrimage.

Cycling route 4201 is relevant for cycling. It runs through Hradec nad Svitavou, Banín, Bělá nad Svitavou and Bohuňov. Bělá nad Svitavou is thus explicitly part of a connection linking several localities. In the wider surrounding region, you will also find four chapels as additional sights: Kaple Panny Marie, Kaple Božského srdce, Kaple Panny Marie Lurdské and Kaple sv. Anny. Drašarov is a mountain there; Roh, Kočíko and Librův Kopec are mountains in the surroundings of Bělá nad Svitavou.

More Destinations for Orientation

Further destinations for your trip include: Rozhraní, Svitavy, Sebranice, Dětřichov U Svitav, Třebařov, Opatovec, Policka and Jaroměřice.

To the higher-level travel overview: Okres Svitavy.