Svatý Hostýn (from Bystřice pod Hostýnem)
Climb · Czechia
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Svatý Hostýn (from Bystřice pod Hostýnem) is a 6.0 km cycling climb averaging 6.1% (+368 m), rising from 323 m to 691 m in Czechia.
A road built for pilgrims in 1932 and now nearly car-free: motor traffic needs a permit and mostly parks below, leaving six kilometres of hairpins to riders and walkers. One of the twenty summits of the Vrchařská koruna Valašska.
6.0 km · +368 m · 6.1% avg · ~9.9% max · 323 → 691 m
Stats computed from OpenStreetMap and satellite elevation data — approximate.
Download GPX ↓Navigate to the foot ↗
Gradient by colour: ● <3% ● 3–6% ● 6–9% ● 9%+
Where it bites
Steepest 500 m: 9.9% (km 4.4–4.8).
| km | to | avg |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 342 m | 2.0% |
| 2 | 401 m | 6.1% |
| 3 | 491 m | 8.5% |
| 4 | 562 m | 7.3% |
| 5 | 643 m | 8.2% |
| 6 | 687 m | 4.2% |
What it’s like to ride
The only road up Hostýn leaves the square in Bystřice pod Hostýnem, crosses the railway and starts climbing straight away, then holds much the same gradient for the whole 6 km, so it is a climb you can settle into rather than one that keeps changing on you. Traffic is close to nothing: cars and motorbikes need a 100 CZK permit from a machine at the car park by the cemetery in Bystřice, so most people leave the car there and walk up. The final stretch is where the trees give way and the views open out over the country below. At the saddle the road forks, gently right to the baroque pilgrimage basilica, left and much steeper to the stone lookout tower, where the asphalt runs out at the wind turbine gate and the last 80 m of gravel are not worth riding on a road bike. Several places at the top sell food and drink, and there is drinking water at the Water Chapel spring at the foot of the staircase below the basilica. It is one of the twenty summits of the Vrchařská koruna Valašska.
History
The six kilometre serpentine road to the basilica was drawn up by the Moravian provincial committee in Brno from surveys by the Bystřice geometer Ing. Maťa and built by the firm Ing. Velenec a spol. of Moravská Ostrava, pushed through by the leadership of the Matice svatohostýnská, prelate Valoušek and the manufacturer Zbořil. Construction meant earthworks in rocky ground, felling and stump clearance and extensive stabilisation of the slope, preceded by difficult land purchases from private owners; it ran for two years and the road opened on 6 September 1932. The line leaves the Bystřice cemetery on the district road toward Slavkov, drops to the Černý potok, turns at a right angle toward Chvalčov and then spirals around the northern, eastern and southern flanks of the hill to the Pilgrimage House at the top. Motor traffic is kept off it today: cars, motorcycles and buses are left at the car park on Jeřabinová street beside the town cemetery, and the way up is on foot, by bike, by the scheduled bus or by taxi, so the hairpins are mostly left to riders.
Worth stopping near the climb
More climbs in Czechia
Common questions
- How long and steep is Svatý Hostýn (from Bystřice pod Hostýnem)?
- Svatý Hostýn (from Bystřice pod Hostýnem) is a 6.0 km cycling climb averaging 6.1% (+368 m), rising from 323 m to 691 m in Czechia.
- Where is Svatý Hostýn (from Bystřice pod Hostýnem) steepest?
- The steepest 500 m averages 9.9%, between km 4.4 and km 4.8 of the climb.