HRENSKO, Czech Republic (dpa) – On a typical Sunday afternoon in spring, hundreds of tourists lounge on outdoor benches to sip beer and bask in the cool breeze of Hrensko’s peaceful canyon.
Contemplating life or just chatting, they pay no heed to the scores of workers in hard hats clambering with hoses and equipment across the wooden scaffolds they have erected beside tall rock cliffs, high above the beer gardens.The workers – members of a special team of engineers and labourers – are racing against time to save Hrensko, its tourist attractions and the canyon’s ancient tranquility.Huge, sandstone rocks perched more than 300 metres above the village are perilously close to breaking away from the steep cliffs that form the walls of Hrensko’s scenic canyon, adjacent to the Elbe River and just across the border from Germany in the northern Czech Republic.At any moment, experts say, the boulders could plunge from the cliffs and land directly on any of the village’s hotels, restaurants, shops and beer gardens.The danger of falling rock was first detected in January, sparking the current emergency. Local officials responded to the discovery by closing a road and evacuating a few homes, eateries, two hotels and several outdoor markets in the village of 200.Since then, rock-repair specialists have secured enough boulders to allow one hotel and most of the markets to re-open.But another section of the village including the Hotel Klepac will remain roped off for weeks and perhaps months to come. The road to the village of Janov is closed as well.To avert disaster, the crews hoped to secure some boulders with steel anchors and cable.In addition, a particularly precarious rock – measuring 266 cubic metres – over the Hotel Klepac was being blasted with water sprayed through high-pressure hoses. The pressurized water treatment is aimed at speeding natural erosion and wearing the rock away.“The massif above the hotel is a big boulder that the team of specialists is gradually scouring, eroding and disintegrating,” said Pavel Vesely, the project overseer and a fire brigade chief from the nearby city of Decin.“But they must be careful not to upset (the rock’s) centre of gravity and topple it onto the hotel below.”Nevertheless, the dangerous boulders are part of the Hrensko mystique. The same cliffs now threatening the village have been drawing tourists since the early 1800s.Hrensko’s canyon is narrow and only about 2 kilometres long, stretching from the hills and ending at the Elbe.A clear stream bubbling between the parallel, tree-topped cliffs keeps the air fresh and flowing. Most of the village’s buildings and markets face the stream, with back doors less than a metre from cliff walls.Hrensko is called the “entrance gate to the Czech Republic”. It began as a stopover on the 500-year-old Czech Road, about two hours south of Dresden and three hours north of Prague.The surrounding region of rounded mountains in the Elbe River valley is packed with dramatic pillars of sandstone, rock bridges, caves and hanging rock formations. The rocky sentinels touch the sky above forests of pine and hardwood.Europe’s largest rock bridge, Pravcic Gate, rises from the forest 5 kilometres east of Hrensko.To protect it from tourist cars, the bridge is only accessible by foot via a wooded trail that starts in the village. Other natural attractions nearby include the Silver Walls, Wild Pass and the Cave of Czech Brothers.Trails for hiking and bicycling criss-cross the area, and quaint villages with pensions and restaurants dot the hills beyond Hrensko’s canyon. Nearby, on the opposite side of the border, is Germany’s Sachsische Schweiz National Park.The current emergency is not the first time man has battled rock in Hrensko. Records of falling rock date back to the Middle Ages.More recently, a giant rock slid down a cliff and damaged two buildings in 1926. A pair of tourist buses had a close call in 1978, when a boulder suddenly crashed onto the road between them.Indeed, according to Hrensko officials, geologists expect the canyon’s cliffs to shed at least a few significant rocks every three years.The village also is at risk for flooding, although the waters haven’t risen significantly since 1897.Vesely, the current rock-repair supervisor, said the latest project should be finished by June 30, barring complications. The operation is expected to cost the Czech government up to 100 million koruna (2.9 million dollars).About three dozen Czech Army soldiers have been guarding the danger zone while work crews scamper above them on the steep scaffolding, seven days a week.But the emergency hasn’t stopped the tourists from strolling through the woods, enjoying the beer gardens and staying in hotels out of harm’s way. Those curious about the boulder danger can chat with the relaxed army guards.And once the targeted rocks have been secured or scoured away, Hrensko will resume a more peaceful pace in the shadow of the cliffs.
