The beauty of Štramberk

Štramberk is interwoven with picturesque streets, houses and gardens, which overlook the dominant feature of the town, Štramberská Trúba.

Štramberk Castle was probably founded in the 13th century. In 1783, part of the castle collapsed and was not repaired again. Its walls were dismantled into other buildings. In the years 1901–1903, the cylindrical tower was saved and rebuilt into a lookout tower – Štramberská Trúba. The walls were also partially repaired.

We put on our veils and climbed the Trumpet. The view here is really fabulous, but the most interesting was the view of the town.

The lookout tower offers a nice view of the highest peaks of the Beskydy and Hostýn Hills, Novojičínsko, Oderské vrchy and the Ostrava Basin. At present, the view is already beginning to be obscured by trees.

Mining in the former Kamenárka quarry ended in 1880. It is a significant outcrop of Štramberk limestone, in which over 600 species of Mesozoic fossils were found. At present, it is protected as a natural monument, as together with the NPR Šipka it is the only place of occurrence of the wall lizard and the reintroduced butterfly of the red-eyed ash in the Czech Republic.

The last thing we would expect here was the botanical garden. The Botanical Garden was established here in 1999 in the former Dolní Kamenárka quarry. Both drought-loving plants and species bound to the limestone subsoil and wetland plants around the lakes grow here. It is a beautiful, quiet place. In the quarry area there is a stone labyrinth and the Pilgrimage Cave, discovered in 1999.

On Štramberk Square, it is full of factories and stores of Štramberk ears that smell from afar. Various cultural events also take place here. We came across a competition of marching bands together with a competition for the best goulash.

The Šipka Cave is an important archeological site. In 1880, during an archaeological excavation, Karel Jaroslav Maška discovered Šipecká's jaw – a fragment of the jaw of a Neanderthal child from about 40,000 BC The cave is freely accessible.

From the Šipka cave is also one of the most beautiful views of Štramberk.

An unofficial footpath leads from the National Park to the edge of the Kotouč quarry. The quarry was founded in 1881 and is still active. The quarry has already cut most of the Kotouč hill, before 1959 the top part, on which in the past there was a prehistoric and probably Slavic fort, disappeared, and where in the 17th-18th century. Jesuit pilgrimage churches stood in the 19th century.