⚠️ Warning! Winter conditions in the mountains do not ease even in May. There is 10–30 cm of snow on the ridges.
The route starts at Cervenohorske sedlo, where you can park your car in a large parking lot. However, the parking lot is quite busy in winter.
Then you will go to the ski ticket office, where you will connect to the red tourist sign. You will walk along the left edge of a small slope. Then, after about 100 meters, you will continue at the crossroads to the right, uphill.
Then you will walk all the way along the forest path that leads past the Memorial to the Victims of the Mountains, and then directly to Vresova studanka.
The path leads to the signpost Pod Bilym sloupem. On the route, in nice weather, I have beautiful views of Praded (1491 m above sea level) and Dlouhe strane (1354 m above sea level).
After the Bily sloup signpost, continue along the paths. In winter, I do not recommend, especially to less experienced tourists, to follow the yellow tourist sign. The route leads above the Snow Basin, or over the avalanche slope.
In a short while, the locality of Vresova studanka will "peek out" at you. Head towards the well, then you will connect to a short staircase that leads to a stone altar and the remains of the former cottage Vresova studanka.
From the chapel there are beautiful views of the nearby peaks of Spaleny vrch (1313 m above sea level), Vozka (1377 m above sea level) and even the more distant Keprnik (1423 m above sea level).
According to legend, the miraculous water springing at the Vresova studanka was discovered by the gamekeeper Franz. One day he shot a deer here so that he could better regurgitate it, he wanted to drag it under a flowing spring. Before he could stick a dagger into the deer, the deer came to life and ran away into the forest.
After some time, the gamekeeper Franz was transferred to Brandys, where unfortunately he and his family fell ill with leprosy. The huntsman woke up every day with dreams in which the Virgin Mary appeared to him and urged him to visit the well. Franz and his family packed up and went, with the last of their strength, to the well, where they healed their wounds.
Out of gratitude and to commemorate this miracle, he hung a holy picture of the Virgin Mary of Sorrows by the well. The news of the spring spread quickly and soon people from far and wide began to come to the place for miraculous water. Gradually, a small pilgrimage site was created near the well.
A mountain cottage once stood on Vresova studanka. In 1968, Vera Caslavska was hiding here from the Communists, and even before leaving for the Olympics in Mexico, she trained here. The cottage was still in operation in the 60s, including the possibility of tourist accommodation and catering. However, it was closed in 1981 due to technical problems and in 1988 it was demolished without compensation.
If you have already visited Vresova studakna, it is definitely worth visiting the so-called Kamenne okno (Stone window), which is located a little further, behind the signpost Cervena hora - signpost. All you have to do is climb the hill.
From the Kamenne okno there is a beautiful view of Praded (1492 m above sea level), the Medvedska hornatina and Jesenik.
