Martinova bouda — also known as Martinovka — is one of the oldest mountain huts in the Krkonoše (Giant Mountains), with roots stretching back to around 1642. Sitting at approximately 1,250 m above sea level on the southeastern slopes of Vysoké kolo, it offers an authentic alpine escape just below the main ridge that forms the Czech-Polish border.
The hut lies within the second protection zone of the Krkonoše National Park, surrounded by subalpine meadows and spruce forests. In summer the air is refreshingly cool, in autumn the hillsides glow with colour, and in winter a deep blanket of snow makes the whole area feel wonderfully remote. Just above the hut begins the strictly protected first zone of the national park, where you must stick to marked trails — a reminder of how precious this landscape truly is.
How to get to the hutFrom the hut, a blue trail leads northeast about 1 km to the state border with Poland at Sedlo nad Martinovkou saddle (~1,350 m), where the red-marked ridge trail runs east and west. Heading west, a green trail traverses the northern slopes of the Labe valley to Labská bouda (2.5 km, 1,312 m) and onward to the symbolic source of the Elbe river. A fun local detail: the hut's silent trail marker in the Krkonoše system is a wide, open letter 'M' — looking rather like an upside-down 'W'.