Teplý Vrch: Nature Trails, Karst and Culture

Teplý Vrch combines a reservoir with nature trails, protected woodland areas and remarkable cultural heritage. If you are looking for a place for your trip to Slovakia where nature observation, karst landscapes and regional history come together within a compact thematic area, you will find several clearly distinct experiences here: a self-guided trail through a game reserve, a 7.5-kilometre karst nature trail, water sports opportunities and a Protestant church with an older altar.

Zvernica Nature Trail: Game Reserve, Forest and Observation

The Zvernica Teplý Vrch nature trail is a self-guided walking route focusing on hunting, natural history and historical topics. It provides information about the history of Slovakia’s oldest game reserve, the keeping of fallow deer and mouflon, and the flora and fauna of the Teplý Vrch game reserve. The trail begins and ends at the Lujza lodge in the game reserve. From an observation tower there, you can watch mouflon and fallow deer living under the protection of the foresters.

Prior arrangement is required to visit the nature trail. In addition, the nature trail is not open to the public during the winter months. These two details clearly distinguish the experience from a walking route that is accessible at any time and should therefore be taken into account when planning your stay.

Hickory Grove and Reservoir

A special landscape feature is the protected Hikóriový porast area. At the end of the 19th century, 50 hickory trees from five species were planted there: Carya ovata, Carya glabra, Carya lacinosa, Carya alba and Carya cordiformis. The trees acclimatised well to the local conditions and regenerate naturally. The north-eastern edge of the protected area is in the immediate vicinity of the Teplý Vrch Reservoir.

The reservoir offers opportunities for water sports. You can also observe waterfowl from a wooden observation point. The Ormet facility is located on the sunny side of the Teplý Vrch Reservoir and thus complements the area’s various landscape perspectives, without the nature experience and water use being the same offering.

Karst Trail with 15 Stations

The Drienčanský kras nature trail begins in Teplý Vrch and is 7.5 km long in total. It passes through the protected Hikóriový porast area and includes 15 stations with information panels about the characteristic natural features of the karst. It therefore has a different focus from Zvernica: while the latter centres on the game reserve, animal keeping and forestry history, Drienčanský kras presents the landscape through its geological and natural-history features.

Church and Gotická cesta

The history of the village is also visible in Teplý Vrch. The Protestant church is a Neoclassical building with Baroque elements dating from 1827. Its altar was created around 1640 in the traditional Mannerist style of Protestant altars and comes from an earlier wooden church mentioned in 1754. The church is listed in the Central Register of the Slovak Monument Fund under number 1 028/1.

Another cultural connection is provided by the Gotická cesta. It includes part of the gemersko-rimavský okruh and passes through the municipalities of Kraskovo and Kyjatice in the Teplý Vrch microregion. For further ideas in the area, you can also visit Bottovo, Jestice, Číž, Včelince, Rimavská Sobota, Blhovce, Kaloša and Kráľ.

For the higher-level travel overview: Okres Rimavská Sobota.