Nový Bor

Nový Bor is a town that exists because of one material. Founded in the eighteenth century as Haida on the trade road from Prague to Lusatia, it became the merchant and refining centre of North Bohemian glass: the furnaces stood in forest villages like Lindava and Falknov, while painters, cutters and engravers worked in the town's low baroque houses and exporters shipped Bohemian crystal across Europe. A glassmaking school opened in 1870 and still teaches. Five kilometres uphill, Kamenický Šenov — Steinschönau under its German-speaking makers — specialised in cut and engraved glass and then in chandeliers; its glass school, founded in 1856, is the oldest in the world, and Preciosa Lighting still assembles chandeliers in the town today. The 1945 expulsion of the German glassmakers broke the continuity of families but not of the craft: Crystalex still melts drinking glass at scale in Nový Bor, Lasvit runs its headquarters here behind a facade of glass tiles, and its showpieces are blown at the Ajeto works in Lindava, where you can watch from a gallery above the furnace. Every three years the town hosts the International Glass Symposium (IGS, since 1982; last held October 2024), when glass artists from five continents blow, cast and argue in public. This is the craft-villages theme in its industrial register — not a museum-piece village but a pair of small working towns where the thing is still made, taught, exported and occasionally dropped.

The glassworks and both glass museums run year-round, and a hot-shop visit is arguably better in cold weather — the furnace hall is the warmest place in the district. For combining glass with walking in the Lužické hory, May to September is the honest window. The fixed point of the calendar is the Sklářské slavnosti (Glass Celebrations) in late June — in 2025 held 26–28 June — when the square fills with glassblowing demonstrations, stalls and music. Every third year, the IGS symposium in October turns the town into an open studio (next edition: check). Winter is quiet and grey, but the furnaces stay lit.

Nový Bor's station sits on the Kolín–Rumburk line: Arriva's R22 fast train runs every two hours from Kolín via Poděbrady, Mladá Boleslav, Doksy and Česká Lípa, some services continuing to Rumburk or Šluknov. From Prague there is no sensible direct rail routing — the through bus 400 (Praha–Česká Lípa–Nový Bor–Rumburk) is the practical train-substitute, roughly 1h45 from Prague (check frequency). From Liberec or Děčín, take a regional train to Česká Lípa and change to the R22 or local bus (check connections). Kamenický Šenov has no regular rail service — its old line from Česká Kamenice survives only as an occasional heritage railway (check running days); city buses link it with Nový Bor in about ten minutes.

Parkhotel Morris, a four-star in a 1920s villa-style building near the park in Nový Bor, is the most comfortable option, with a restaurant and a wellness floor that draws Czech weekenders. Pension Druhý domov is a plain, well-kept guesthouse in Nový Bor, bookable on the usual platforms. In Kamenický Šenov, Penzion Tavba — the name means 'the melt', which tells you where you are — offers simple rooms at the wooded edge of town, a short walk from the glass museum and Panská skála. Book ahead for late June (festival) and any IGS October; otherwise availability is rarely a problem, which is itself a statement about visitor numbers.

This is Czech pub cooking country: svíčková in cream sauce, game from the Lužické hory forests, fruit dumplings, and beer from the revived Cvikov brewery a few kilometres north, whose lagers are named after local landmarks. The distinctive meal is at the Glassmaker's Tavern (Sklářská krčma) at the Ajeto works in Lindava, open daily, where hearty plates are served beside the working glasshouse — some dishes are cooked using the heat of the glass furnace itself (check current menu). In Nový Bor, the Parkhotel Morris restaurant is the reliable sit-down option; cafés around náměstí Míru cover the rest. Expect Czech prices, Czech portions, and menus that assume you came for the glass, not the food.

Start where the glass is made. The Ajeto glassworks in Lindava runs weekday tours from a gallery above the furnace — individually between 9:00 and 13:00, with guided tours bookable in English and German — and you can blow your own piece under a glassmaker's supervision. The Glass Museum in Nový Bor, in a gabled late-Baroque house of 1804 on náměstí Míru, was founded in 1893 by the association of glass workers and arranges its collection by technique rather than by date: blown, cut, painted and engraved, together with what it describes as the world's largest holding of painted Art Nouveau glass (check opening days). Uphill in Kamenický Šenov, the Glass Museum, founded in 1923 and housed in its classicist building since 1968, concentrates on the town's cut and engraved work and its chandeliers.

The craft is still a working economy here, and much of it is visitable. Lasvit's headquarters on Palackého náměstí — the glass-tiled building set among the old timbered houses — opens for guided tours on Friday for a small donation to the company foundation, booked in advance; check current arrangements. The Crystal Valley route gathers the rest, from Crystalex and Floriánova huť to Novotny Glass and a scatter of independent studios in both towns, and buying there rather than in a tourist shop is precisely the point. Both towns' historic glass schools, founded in 1870 and 1856, open for occasional exhibitions and open days (check ahead). When you have had enough of furnaces, walk the Forest Cemetery on the edge of Nový Bor, laid out in 1909 and planted with rhododendrons, where the glassmaking families are buried.

Then head for the hills. Panská skála, the basalt stone organ above Prácheň, is freely accessible on foot from Kamenický Šenov in about half an hour, and the Lužické hory trails start from town. Klíč, at 760 metres the fourth-highest summit of the range, stands some three kilometres from Nový Bor; the red-marked route up gains around four hundred metres, passes a spring and a boulder field, and finishes in a nature reserve where chamois were introduced a century ago. For a half-day out, the rock castle at Sloup v Čechách is a sandstone block hollowed into chambers and passages, a medieval stronghold that became a Baroque hermitage, open through the warmer months on a schedule that shifts by season, so check current hours. Winter is quiet and grey, but the furnaces stay lit.

• Language: Czech; German is historically present and partly understood, English patchy outside hotels and Ajeto's booked tours.
• Currency: Czech koruna (CZK); Czechia does not use the euro. Cards widely accepted, but carry some cash for small museums and buses.
• Plug: Type E, 230 V — standard European two-pin plugs fit.
• Getting there: Arriva R22 train every 2 hours via Česká Lípa to Nový Bor station; from Prague, bus 400 is the fastest public option (check timetables at idos.cz).
• Getting around: Nový Bor is walkable; frequent local buses to Kamenický Šenov and Prácheň (Panská skála); Ajeto in Lindava is a short bus or taxi ride (check bus times).
• Money: ATMs on náměstí Míru in Nový Bor; glass purchases at studios may prefer cash for small items.
• Mobile: EU roaming applies; coverage is good in the towns, patchier on Lužické hory trails.
• Nearest hospital: Nemocnice Česká Lípa, about 10 km away; pharmacy in Nový Bor town centre.
• Seasons & hours: Glassworks tours are weekday-only; both glass museums keep short provincial hours and may close Mondays — check before travelling (check ahead).