Kozí hůra, Natural monument in Choťovice, Czech Republic

Kozí hůra is a 17.35-hectare natural monument made up of five separate patches of broad-leaved dry grassland, oak-hornbeam forest and adjoining woodland on the slopes of the Kozí hůra hill, between 218 and 264 metres above sea level. The patches lie in the cadastral areas of Choťovice, Polní Chrčice and Žehuň, north and south of the D11 motorway.

Forests here were once managed as coppice and used for grazing; orchards and meadows on farmland were later abandoned and vanished. The southwest section was incorporated into the Chrčická stráně game reserve, where intensive grazing of fallow deer and mouflon reduces scrub and nutrient-loving plants. The regional authority declared the natural monument effective 5 April 2017.

The southwest section lies within the Chrčická strán game reserve, where European fallow deer and European mouflon are bred. Intensive grazing there reduces scrub and nutrient-loving plants, which helps maintain the dry grasslands. The reserve is fenced, so the animals are not freely roaming the whole monument, and visitors see it from outside.

The site is accessible via a blue-marked hiking trail that connects Žehuň to Polní Chrčice. Since the D11 motorway divides different sections, visitors should plan their route carefully and follow the trail markings.

The bedrock is Turonian to Coniacian marl and claystone, overlain by Pleistocene gravels and sands, giving pararendzina and brown-earth soils. The monument lies on old Pleistocene river terraces of the Cidlina and Labe in the Krakovany table, with no streams or water bodies inside its five parts.