Discover Benešovice

Benešovice combines quiet paths through a little-explored landscape with an unusually eventful local history. This gives you two different focal points for planning your trip: you can combine cycling and walks in a rather sparsely populated area with historical discoveries, or explore the history of the place specifically.

Cycling, Walks and Landscape

Cycling Route No. 2203 runs through Damnov, Benešovice and Vrbice u Stříbra and is 18 km long. A second option is Cycling Route No. 2211: it runs through Prostiboř, Brod u Stříbra, Výrov, Benešovice, Lom u Stříbra and Svojšín and is 17.5 km long. The two routes follow different courses and connect Benešovice with several places in the surrounding area.

Today, Benešovice invites visitors to enjoy peaceful walks and cycling trips. The absence of large hills is considered favourable for less experienced cyclists and hikers. The surrounding area is regarded as a rather sparsely populated landscape of forests, fields and villages surrounded by nature that has so far been little discovered by tourists. The D5 runs through Benešovice.

The Výrovský Pond, hidden in the forest, lies nearby and is visited as a natural swimming area. This adds a waterside destination to the paths through forests, fields and villages. This creates a varied day combining cycling, hiking and time by the water, without Benešovice being limited to a single type of excursion.

Traces of the Golden Road

The history of the place dates back to the Middle Ages. At that time, Benešovice lay on a trade route between Prague and Nuremberg that was known as the Golden Road during the reign of Charles IV. Because of this economically important location, the nearby monastery in Kladruby sought to acquire Benešovice and disputed ownership of it with the nobility for centuries. The historical importance of the place is therefore connected not only with individual buildings, but also with its location on an important route.

It is considered likely that Benešovice came into being because of the Golden Road on the damp and infertile soil found there. This cautious historical classification explains one particular aspect of the local history without turning it into a confirmed account of the settlement's foundation. A war memorial also commemorates 14 residents who did not return from the First World War. The memorial was erected in the 1920s.

Chapel of Our Lady and an Exceptional Relocation

The Chapel of Our Lady is located in Benešovice. Its history contains a special technical and heritage-related detail: the chapel was relocated in 1974. At the time, this served as a dress rehearsal for the relocation of the Church of the Assumption of Our Lady in Most. Those interested in changes to historic buildings will therefore find here not only a religious building, but also a specific connection with a larger relocation project.

Other Places in the Same Overview

For further orientation, you can also view Tisová, Bezdružice, Skapce, Planá U Mariánských Lázní, Chodský Újezd, Svojšín, Dlouhý Újezd and Stříbro.

To the higher-level travel overview: Tachov District.