Rejvíz

Rejvíz (IPA2|'rɛjvi:s, German: "Reihwiesen") is the highest situated Silesian village in the Czech Republic (757 metres above sea level), and an administrative part of Zlaté Hory. It is also the most important tourist area in the northern part of the Protected Landscape Territory of Jeseník.

The Rejvíz Guesthouse is a popular sight because of its wooden interior from the early 20th century, carved by its owners, the Brauner brothers. Its part are also chairs with carved faces of regular customers of that time (.

Rejvíz is also a natural reserve, founded in 1955, covering 3.97 km² and composed of the largest peat bog in Moravia and Moravian Silesia with small lakes of glacial origin. An instructive natural path was opened in 1970 and leads from the Rejvíz Guesthouse to the Great Moss Lake in the western part of the natural reserve. It is 1.5 km long and there are six stops with information boards.

The area of the Great Moss Lake is 1,692 m². It is 68.5 m long and 41 m wide. Its depth is 2.95 m. Another lake, the Small Moss Lake, lies in the north-eastern part of the natural reserve. However, nowadays it is completely overgrown with plants. The thickness of the peat layer is 6.6 m in this area, twice more than at the Great Moss Lake. The Small Moss Lake is not accessible to the public.

The peat bog is very rich in spiders. Other species living here include Alpine Newt, Carpathian Newt and Moor Frog. Moorland Clouded Yellow and Subarctic Hawker are glacial relicts. When the last ice age ended many species moved to northern territories of Europe, but peat bogs provided good conditions for some of them here too.

The area is surrounded with woods consisting mainly of spruces, which are replaced with mountain pines towards the centre. The meadows are very rich in species of various plants. Among the most common ones there are horsetail, wood club-rush, "Cirsium rivulare" and meadowsweet. There are also a lot of rare species, such as few-flower sedge, fibrous tussock-sedge, flea sedge, tufted loosestrife or "Gladiolus imbricatus".

Many other plants can be seen at the moss lakes, for example sphagnum moss, cotton-grass, Marsh Labrador Tea and carnivorous common sundew.

External links

In the Czech language:
* [http://www.jeseniky-praded.cz/rejviz.htm Rejvíz instructive natural path]
* [http://www.rejviz.com Rejvíz Guesthouse]