On Saturday, April 18, 2026, the third expedition of Wikipedians to Northwestern Bohemia took place, this time under the name Podbořansko 2026. A group of volunteers set out to document and discover interesting places in the region. The entire event was supported by the Wikimedia Czech Republic chapter as part of the Community Minigrants program.
The route of this spring excursion, initiated and organized by Wikipedian Gortyna, began with a morning gathering at the castle in Petrohrad, from where the participants hiked up to the ruins of the castle of the same name. The next item on the agenda was a move to Libyně, where an extraordinary experience awaited the Wikipedians – a visit to the Stained Glass Museum located in the Gothic Church of St. Giles. They were given a highly knowledgeable guided tour by the museum’s co-founder himself, Mr. Richard Kanta.
The afternoon part of the program belonged to an architectural gem of the Karlovy Vary region – Valeč Castle and its beautiful Baroque park. As a special bonus, participants had the opportunity during lunch to view period photographs from the exhibition From a Castle Garden by photographer Alena Hanzlová, which uniquely capture the Valeč estate between the years 1981 and 1983.
Event Photos and Community Support
Trips of this kind serve not only to strengthen the community but primarily aim to enrich the free encyclopedia Wikipedia and its sister projects with new information and freely licensed photographs from overlooked corners of the country. The newly captured images from the expedition can be viewed in the respective category on Wikimedia Commons: Category:Podboransko_2026.
A big thank you goes to the organizer as well as to Wikimedia Czech Republic, which financially sponsored the event through its Community Minigrants. This program has long been helping Wikipedians with the realization of similar photographic trips, purchasing literature, covering travel expenses, and other costs that lead to the improvement of the Czech Wikipedia.
More details about the event can be found directly on the Podbořansko 2026 project page.