Pálava

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Pavlov / Pollau, which gives the hill country its name, with the ruins of Děvičky ( Maidenburg ) and Děvín

Pálava is a protected landscape area in the south-east of the Czech Republic . It was proclaimed on March 19, 1976 over an area of ​​83 km². The protected area is about 40 kilometers south of the Moravian city ​​of Brno and includes the hilly Pavlovské vrchy (Pollau Mountains), the Milovický les (Millowitz forest) and the lowland lying south of it up to the state border with Austria , i.e. most of the Mikulovská vrchovina ( Nikolsburg Mountains).

Location and landscape

The hills on the edge of the northern Vienna Basin form the westernmost part of the Outer Western Carpathians and are also part of the Waschberg Zone . The highest point is the Děvín (Maidenberg) hill with 554  m nm. The northern border is the Vodní nádrž Nové Mlýny (Neumühl reservoir) on the Thaya, where the lowest point is 163  m nm .

View from Schakwitz over the reservoir

The biotopes include species-rich rock, grass and meadow steppes, forest steppes, warmth-loving beech forests and ravine forests on a subsoil of Jura limestone. In the floodplains of the Thaya between Nové Mlýny and Bulhary (Pulgram), alluvial forests alternate with other wet or water biotopes.

The naturally and historically unique valley depression along the meandering river Thaya north of Nové Mlýny and directly at the eastern foot of Pálava with what was then the largest floodplain forest area in Central Europe with rich flora and fauna as well as numerous archaeological sites (Stone Age, Roman antiquity, Middle Ages) was established in the 1980s flooded after the construction of a huge three-part reservoir and thus largely destroyed. The main purpose of the reservoir, the feeding of an extensive agricultural irrigation system, was never achieved.

Culture and settlement

Pálava is located in one of the warmest and driest regions in the Czech Republic in the middle of an old cultural and settlement landscape. The area near Dolní Věstonice ( Unterwisternitz ) on the northern edge was already densely populated in the Stone Age; Of the local finds, the Venus of Dolní Věstonice , a 25,000 to 29,000 year old ceramic figure, is particularly well known. The plain around the hills is used intensively for agriculture. The town of Mikulov ( Nikolsburg ) on the southern edge of Pálava is one of the centers of Moravian viticulture . The landscape of the hills themselves has been shaped by thousands of years of human use, the original forests have given way to karst forest steppes. The ecological value arises from the combination of geological and climatic conditions, which is unusual in the Czech Republic. On the Klausen massif (483 m) ( Obora ) (483 m) are the remains of the Neuhaus Castle (Nový hrad), on the lower peak of Table Mountain ( Stolová hora ) there is the ruins of the Waisenstein Castle ( Sirotčí hrádek ).

Nature reserves

The most valuable parts of the landscape are under special protection: Nine nature reserves and five natural monuments are identified on the site. The area is part of a bird sanctuary , the wetlands belong to the Mokřady Dolního Podyjí network , which is protected under the Ramsar Convention . In 1986 UNESCO added Pálava to the international network of biosphere reserves . In 2003 the area was expanded and renamed the Lower Morava Biosphere Reserve , to which the Pálava Protected Landscape Area has belonged ever since.

Small-scale protected areas:

  • National nature reserves : Děvín-Kotel-Soutěska; Tabulová, Růžový vrch a Kočičí kámen; Křivé jezero; Slanisko u Nesytu; Svatý kopeček u Mikulova
  • Nature reserves : Milovická stráň; Svatý kopeček ( Holy Mountain ); Turold ; Liščí vrch; Šibeničník ( Gallows Hill )
  • National natural monument : Kalendář věků
  • Natural monuments : Růžový kopec; Kienberg; Kočičí skála ( Katzstein ); Anenský vrch

cities and communes

Web links

Commons : CHKO Pálava  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 48 ° 48 ′ 57 ″  N , 16 ° 38 ′ 21 ″  E