Municipality: Bílá
Lying along the Czechoslovakian border is the village of Bílá, a word heard often among skiers during the winter season. The ski region of Bílá Beskydy includes two ski resorts: Bílá and Mezivodí. The Bílá ski resort is one of the largest in the Beskydy, with two slopes facing each other. The more than 5 km of slopes are cared for every day by the most modern equipment and artificial snow machines.
Parts of them are even illuminated to allow for some good quality skiing during evening hours. A four-seat chairlift and another four lifts work to keep the flow of skiers ever moving. For snowboarders, a snowboard park with jumps and obstacles has been established in the southern portion of the resort. But neither do children come up short here. A TOP children?s ski park with rope lift, moving carpet and Rotondo carousel has been prepared for them. The resort is fully stocked with quality facilities for dining and accommodation, renting equipment and ski service.
Three circular tracks of 6, 20 and 33 km have been established for cross-country skiers. If you would like to try something more, excursions are available for you on snow shoes. You can finish your excursion in high style with a glass of mulled wine and sausages served in a proper Indian tepee. And if all that were not enough, you can rent a pair of snow blades. They are something like short skis and allow you to try parts of the slope where normal skis are not allowed. The second ski resort Mezivodí can be found a few kilometers away. Four ski lifts, one of which is intended for children, have been built on the site. The slopes are likewise illuminated and covered with artificial snow. Skiers here will find a ski school, ski and snowboard rental, and the Ledovec (Glacier) restaurant available to them.
The village of Bílá is about more than just winter. The Bílá ski resort offers various activities even during the summer months. You can try archery here, practice on the trampoline or ride a mountain scooter down the slope. You need not, however, push the scooter back up the hill, not with the four-seat Zbojník (Bandit) chairlift operating from June to September.
Bílá also contains several places of interest. The wooden church of St. Bedřich was built during the 1870s at the instigation of the cardinal of Olomouc, Fridrich Landrát. The architecture of the church goes beyond the ordinary shapes of other churches in the Beskydy region as its builder, Antonín Kybast, looked for his inspiration in Sweden. Inside the church you can admire fourteen columns that have been beautifully carved and the light enters here through fourteen windows, with color adornments that represent individual phases of the cross of the way. In 1906 the archbishop's château was built not far from the church. The exterior of the Lovecky château is protected by shingles and has kept its original look today.
On the border between Horní Bečva and Bílá stands the chapel of St. Cyril and Methodius. The structure pays homage to architect Dušan Jurkovič. As with his other works, he combines here classical elements of Beskydy folk architecture with those of disappearing secession art and ornamental elements with color contrast in several details. The chapel of St. Cyril and Methodius is also enhanced by the lovely glass-pane detail of the rear window that shows the two missionaries.
If you would like to take a trip back 280 years in time, have a look at the Salajka pod Bumbálkou National Wilderness Reservation. The primeval forest is made up of what remains of a very rare forest of fir and oak. One legendary fir tree here was the so-called Fat Tonka, which was about 350 years old, had a girth of 527 cm and total wood volume of 40 m3. This forest offers a good look at the type of forests that covered most of the Beskydy in the past.
