This nature trail is situated in the cadastral Štramberk territory. It is located in the foothills of the Beskydy mountains, the historical territory called Lašsko. It is rich in both natural and cultural monuments and sights.

Lašsko is an ethnic region which is circumscribed mainly by the towns of Štramberk, Kopřivnice, Příbor and their environs. Until the break of the century its character was kept in traditional costumes, architecture, customs, dialect and folk-lore.

Štramberk is situated about 8 km to the east of Nový Jičín on the slopes of the Château hill, in the neighbourhood of an industrial town Kopřivnice. The Sedlnička river flows through the town with several tributaries. The town was once protected by an aristocratic castle from which only a tower has remained until today and was converted into a look-out tower called Trúba in 1904. The history of the town goes back to the primeval ages which can be prooved by findings of skeletal remains and a Neanderthal´s child jaw-bone, found in 1880 in the Šipka cave by an archeologist K.J. Maška.

Timbered houses in Štramberk are of an extraordinary monumental value, illustrating the racy regional type of folk architecture. For its picturesqueness, the historical core of the town was declared a town reservation in 1969 and in 1997 it was suggested to be appraised by UNESCO.

Culture, history and nature of the town and its environs are presented in the museum of Zdeněk Burian and in the municipal museum on the square.

The best part of the nature trail territory is a part of the natural park Podbeskydí, which was declared in 1994. The purpose of the protection is mainly to keep its regional character, typical for this territory and to protect localities where it is possible to explore the Earth´s surface and geological history of the Earth.

Štramberk is a very interesting area even from the geomorphological aspect. Calciphilous and thermophile vegetation can be found around the jurassic limestones and there are also rare localities with protected stand-grasses . The jurassic limestones first appeared 145 -140 million years ago, descending from the great coral reef which rose between Cetraceous period and Oolite period. This coral reef was inhabited by many organisms and that is why Štramberk limestones belong to the richest
finding places of fossils in Europe.

Štramberk is easily accessible by any transportation mean. It is situated on the railway track Studénka - Veřovice. There is also a very good bus connection to bigger towns such as Nový Jičín, Kopřivnice, Frenštát pod Radhoštěm, Rožnov pod Radhoštěm and Ostrava.

In 2001 the first part of the Lašská nature trail was opened. It passes through the town of Kopřivnice. This part is connected with the second one, which leads through Štramberk and which will be opened this year. It is 6 km long with 13 stops in the natural and the municipal part of the town.

INFORMATION: http://www.stramberk.cz/mu/historie2.php?name=ls_start