Disney's The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was shot at Adršpach National Park, one of the most stunning natural settings in Europe. It's just three and a half hours east of Prague by train, near the Polish border. The labyrinth of rocks, some towering as high as 100 meters (330 feet), is reminiscent of Bryce Canyon, but set amid a pine forest and lake.

One step into the park and you are in Narnia. The narrow gorges and caves could well be home to Mr. Tumnus, the faun who first befriends Lucy Pevensie. Certainly any beavers that live on Lake Adršpach must speak perfect English. And isn't that a battalion of centaurs standing watch on the escarpment?

Long before Disney, Adršpach was a magical setting with names like Elephant Square, Thunder Boulder, Echo Point and The Tooth. Narrow corridors created when rock forced its way through the Earth's crust have generated jaw-dropping massifs, towering formations so slender at the base that some people walk past gently, fearing the rock will topple. Further in, you'll find two waterfalls, one cascading into a rock gorge from a height of 16 meters, and the Mouse Hole, a trail that allows you to traverse between a tiny gap in two rocks.

Each climb produces a vista better than the previous one. That could be why Adršpach has attracted a string of prominent historical personalities, from Queen Louise of Prussia to German author Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.

It takes just four hours to walk through the park, mostly on well-marked and sandy paths and up steep stairwells with handrails. But those four hours may as well be four million, as time seems to stand still in Adršpach.

Around the year 1700, hikers and climbers from neighboring Silesia first began to visit the area. But it remained relatively unknown until a fire in 1824 that lasted several weeks, burning off the forest cover. Today, according to Pension Adršpach co-owner František Restan, more than 300,000 tourists visit Adršpach each summer. That's why fall could be just the right season for a tour, with fewer tourists and splendid colors.

For centuries, local settlers only ventured inside Adršpach if they felt endangered in their homes; in the park, they could find refuge. Just like those settlers, and the children in Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia who took refuge from the horrors of war by finding their way to Narnia, so can you.