Maršovický vrch (744 m a.s.l.) may look like a quiet, forested hill at the foot of the Jizera Mountains — but beneath its surface lies one of the oldest and largest prehistoric stone quarrying sites in all of Europe. Neolithic miners worked here some 6,000 to 7,000 years ago, extracting amphibole hornfels to craft stone axes that eventually travelled as far as Saxony, Moravia, and even northern Italy.
The summit itself is gentle and unassuming, the highest point of the Maršovice Upland. Surrounded by the village of Maršovice to the south, the hamlets of Krásná and Dolní Černá Studnice to the east and north, and the Kokonín district of Jablonec nad Nisou to the west, this is a peaceful, green corner of the Bohemian countryside. The terrain is easy walking through mixed forest, pleasant in every season — lush in summer, colourful in autumn, and refreshingly quiet in winter.
How to reach the summitKeep an eye out for subtle depressions in the forest floor — these are the preserved remains of Neolithic mining pits, spread across roughly 22 hectares. The raw material quarried here dominated stone tool production across Bohemia and central Europe during the Early Neolithic, making this unassuming hilltop a place of truly continental significance.