Our starting point is the picturesque little town of Osek with its significant and dominating sight, the Romanesque Cistercian monastery built in 1196. Unfortunately, the history of the town and the monastery is closely connected with frequent attacks and numerous raids, usually ending with ransacking and town burning. However, despite the unfortunate and sad history, the historical core and the monastery have been beautifully rebuilt so we now may take advantage of a guided one-hour tour of the monastery. From Osek - town square, monastery, we will follow the blue sign towards "Pod hradem Osek" (Under Osek Castle) (2.5 km). At the end of the village we will come to a Monument to the Nelson Catastrophe, which was pronounced as a national cultural heritage monument. The Educational Trail information board (hereinafter ET only) will tell us that the monument was built to commemorate the 144 mine disaster victims who died in the Nelson III mine on 3 January 1934. From the monument we shall take a walk through the woods and join a road which will take us slightly uphill /2/ through the Old Town part of Osek towards Pod hradem Osek-Rýzmburk (Under Osek-Rýzmburk Castle). The educational trail as well as our red sign turn right here and after a 0.5 km long climb /2-3/ it will take us to Osek Castle.
The ruins of Osek-Rýzmburk Castle are hidden on the left side of the crossroad sign and behind a single house yard where we have to pass by. It is one of the largest castle ruins in Bohemia. The castle was founded at the beginning of the 13th century but in the 16th century, when it belonged to the Lobkovic clan, it was deserted and abandoned. However, the large cylindrical tower in the lower section of the castle was repaired in the 19th century and is now almost as high as it used to be. The castle ruins are accessible at your own risk only.
From the castle we will take another climb /2/ and follow the red sign until we reachPod Stropníkem. Here we take a left turn and start to follow the green sign. Then we take another climb /2-3/ through a dense forest all the way to the top of Stropník (856 m). From the top decorated with two rocks, we will have a wonderful panoramic view of the Krušné Mountains, České středohoří (Czech Central Mountains) and the brown coal basin. Still following the green sign, we are going to take a slight descent /2/, and then climb /2/ up and around a wind power plant and a meteorological tower, until we reach the upper section of Dlouhá Louka.
From Dlouhá louka (850 m), built on a former trade route from Osek to Saxony, we take the blue sign at the crossroad and follow it down to "Osek - square, monastery" (5.5 km). Now, we are going down /2/ and passing around a church built in the new Baroque style and just behind Pod Dlouhou Loukou our blue sign takes a sharp left turn and then turns right again towards the woods. We will now take a sharp downhill walk /2-3/ through a beautiful pine and oak forest. When we get to a left slope free of trees, we may see in the background and inside the deep valley the Osek Monastery and České středohoří (Czech Central Mountains). From the Nad Osekem crossroad we may take a "quick peek" at the Educational Trail stop Vrása, which is only 200 metres away. After a sharp climb /3/, presenting us with several views of the Osek Castle Tower, we will see on our left side near the information board a protected rock formation called Vrása, representing a vertical wall with distinctive horizontal fold pattern.
On our way back from the crossroad we go down /2/ through the woods and follow the Educational Trail direction "Salesiova výšina" (Salesiova Height) (5.5 km). The ET will take us into a deep ravine, where two small brooks meet each other. We can also see a former mine entrance here and the 8th stop of the ET – the bat wintering place. Now we are mostly going downhill /1-2/ on the slope above the Osecký Brook and on the road that we climbed earlier to reach the castle. Later, as we come out of the woods near the upper ski lift station, we will be rewarded with a nice view of the little town of Osek. After a short walk we will discover a hidden rock. At the 5th Educational Trail stop, called the Krušnohorský zlom (Krušné Mountains Fault), we will learn that it is a gneissic rock wall tilted at an angle of 60 - 70° representing the Krušné Mountains slip area, separating the Tertiary sediments from crystalline. Behind the road from Loučná to Osek, when we reach the crossroad sign near the Salesiova Height, we will be surprised by a rare quartz rock town, around which the ET passes. We will follow the yellow sign around the Osecký Pond (public swimming pool) and go back to the town square.
Total length 20.4 km.
