Radiměř: St. Anne, Rolling Landscape and the Butterfly Kingdom

Radiměř combines an impressive cultural history with a rolling landscape and distinctive natural areas. At its center is the church and cemetery complex of St. Anne, while meadows, forests, agricultural land and pastures extend beyond the town. There is also a marked cycling route and the Radiměř Butterfly Kingdom, with a remarkable diversity of species. If you would like to combine culture, landscapes and an active tour of discovery during your stay, Radiměř offers several clearly distinct points of interest for doing so.

St. Anne’s Church in the center of Radiměř

The church and cemetery complex of St. Anne is located in a prominent position in the center of Radiměř. The listed church is a late Baroque building dating from 1771–1776. Its history, however, goes back further: the building incorporates an originally Gothic presbytery from the second half of the 14th century. It was preserved as an eastern chapel and thus provides a visible historical link to the town’s earlier architectural history. St. Anne’s also preserves a remarkable work of art inside. It is a late Gothic wooden relief carving of St. Anne Samotřetí from the early 16th century. The Chapel of St. John is another of Radiměř’s local sights. Together with the Trinity Column from 1888, these religious monuments reflect different periods of the town’s history without confining Radiměř to just one era.

Rolling landscape and rare nature

The landscape around Radiměř is rolling and characterized by meadows, forests, agricultural land and pastures. From the highest point of the entire Radiměř township, there are views across the surrounding landscape, neighboring municipalities and the city of Svitavy. This makes it possible to experience the area not only through individual sights, but also through its changing landscape spaces. A distinctive natural environment can be found in the Radiměř Butterfly Kingdom near Radiměř, not far from Svitavy in eastern Bohemia. The area comprises warm, sun-exposed slopes, field margins and scattered orchards with short-grass dry grasslands and mesic meadows. In places, there are very dry, naturally unforested white slopes as well as small wetlands. This contrast between different habitats contributes to the very high diversity of species. These include several orchid species and dozens of species of butterflies. The critically endangered modrásek černoskvrnný butterfly is also found in the area. Open, dry and more humid landscape elements lie close together there.

Radiměř as part of a challenging cycling route

The history of the landscape also extends beyond the town center. Sections of the Radiměřský potok stream formed the historic provincial border between Bohemia and Moravia in the area of today’s Radiměř municipality. This connection between the natural environment and regional history adds another local feature to the cultural sights. The Radiměř–Svojanov cycling route is relevant for active days. It leads through Radiměř, Rohozná and Svojanov and is marked with road signs. Its route is challenging but suitable for all types of bicycles. Other places you can look at when planning your trip include Sebranice, Bystré U Poličky, Sloupnice, Strakov, Příluka, Široký Důl, Vítějeves and Vendolí.

For the higher-level travel overview: Svitavy District.