Vysočina Region

Official name: Vysočina (Vysočina Region)
Population: 513,195
Area: 6,796 km²
Number of municipalities: 704, of which 34 are towns
NUTS II: South-East

The Vysočina Region prides itself on no less than three UNESCO World Heritage List landmarks. The name stems from the fact that the majority of the region is located in the Bohemian-Moravian Highlands, an area of raised undulated landscape straddling the border of historic Bohemia and Moravia.

Stone cross Generations of settlers turned the original impenetrable primeval forest into harmonious cultivated landscape, characterised by a mosaic of forests, groves, fields, meadows and pastures. Almost every brook is dammed to create several fishponds.

Natural conditions dispersed the population of Vysočina into more than a thousand settlements, connected by a dense network of roads. The Vysočina Region is characterised by small villages, which are located close to a local centre, which is usually a quiet small town of three to ten thousand inhabitants. Only four towns within the region exceed 20,000, and the regional capital of Jihlava has only 50,000 inhabitants.

Historic border between Bohemia and Moravia

The local “metropolis”, therefore, is Jihlava, the oldest mining town in the Czech Lands, which was one of the richest cities in the Czech Kingdom, during medieval times, primarily thanks to silver mining. Jihlava straddles the former historic border between Bohemia and Moravia. The region is located in the transport and population centre of the entire country. The main Czech highway, the D1 Motorway, traverses the region. In recent years, Vysočina’s strategic location has attracted many foreign investors, who tend to locate their production facilities as well as their research and development centres here.

Třebíč synagogue History enriched the region with many attractive sights and historical landmarks. Three of them – the historic centre of the town of Telč, the Pilgrimage Church of Saint John of Nepomuk at Zelená Hora in Žďár nad Sázavou, and the Jewish town and Basilica of St. Procopius in Třebíč – have been placed on the UNESCO World Heritage List. Natural riches include the protected areas of Žďárské vrchy, Železné hory, and Mohelenská Serpentine Steppe National Nature Reserve, Velký Špičák and numerous other smaller nature reserves. One of the main advantages of the Vysočina Region is its clean environment.

Regional projects

In addition to its natural and cultural heritage, the region boasts a variety of successful projects. The most interesting among them have been selected by the region itself.

Tourism portal

The tourism portal at www.region-vysocina.cz/en offers information on tourist and leisure time activities in the region, tips for trips, swimming and skiing, cultural, social and sporting events, as well as accommodation in the region. The website is accessible to external users who may enter their data and update them as they wish. This internet site, portraying the region and its tourist attractions, won second place at the 2004 TOUR REGION FILM festival in Karlovy Vary in the multimedia category.

The www.lyze-vysocina.cz website provides information on downhill and cross-country skiing possibilities in Vysočina, including ski service and rental shops information and snow and weather forecasts. The website has webcams showing all ski lifts in the region and enables routing. Ski lift operators update all information electronically – through e-mail or text messages.

Information system on cross-country skiing trails

The cross-country skiing trails information system is an interactive map, which allows users to obtain information on the trails (length, altitude profile), as well as information on accommodation, information centres and sites in the area; all with hypertext links to the specific websites. Cross-country ski trails can be visualised on several different underlying maps. In April 2006, this application won the first place as the “Geo-application of the Year 2005“ in the tourism category.

More information at gis.kr-vysocina.cz/website/turista

Local Government on the Internet

This is a part of the international project “eParticipate”, co-financed by the “eTen” programme, which Vysočina joined as a partner in 2007. The aim of the project is to make local government activities accessible to the inhabitants of the region, by means of information technologies. In practical terms, this project currently includes live internet video-broadcasts from sessions of the Regional Board of Representatives and similar sessions on city and municipal levels and the subsequent publications of the minutes of these sessions in on-line archives.

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