Zielona Góra Cave

Behind a low opening in a limestone rock, right beside the red Eagles' Nests Trail, lies a chamber of about 10 × 8 m filled with thick flowstone columns up to 1.5 m tall. According to cavers' descriptions, no other cave in the Polish Jura has so many columns. The Zielona Góra Cave lies in a nature reserve near Kusięta in the Olsztyn municipality – and it is closed to visitors.

A stone forest under the hill

The entrance is about 2 m wide and 1.3 m high and leads into a low, gently descending passage 11 m long. Beyond it opens the main chamber with its columns, and next to it a second, smaller chamber with well-preserved stalagnates and large flowstone sheets. Further on, tight squeezes lead to more chambers and passages too narrow for a person – they probably connect with the rock shelter below the summit on the other side of the hill.

The cave is damp, and after heavy rain water collects on its floor. The finer formations were broken off long ago, and torches and campfires blackened the walls of the first chamber. In many places, however, calcite is forming again, so the formations have a chance to partly recover.

Why it is closed

The Regional Directorate for Environmental Protection in Katowice states that the cave is closed to visitors to protect bats and for safety reasons. Lesser horseshoe bats, brown long-eared bats and greater mouse-eared bats occasionally hibernate here, and badger tracks have also been seen. In the reserve you may only use the marked footpath, and climbing is allowed only on designated rocks: Zielona Góra, Płetwa and Kowadło.

A history of exploration

The cave has long been known. J. Rafalski first mentioned it in print in 1931, and a year later H. Błaszczyk drew a plan and photographed the formations. In 1937 K. Maślankiewicz produced a detailed plan and description, and in 1951 Kazimierz Kowalski included the cave in the inventory of Polish caves. In 1988 cavers widened a squeeze, opening up a side passage several metres long.

Zielona Góra Nature Reserve

The reserve was created in 1953; it covers about 19 hectares of a limestone hill 343 m high and is under strict protection. It protects warmth-loving grassland and scrub, beech and oak-hornbeam woodland, and karst landforms. The hill lies on the Mirów–Olsztyn Upland, within the Eagles' Nests Landscape Park.

Tripto tip

Treat Zielona Góra as the goal of a walk along the red Eagles' Nests Trail between Kusięta and Częstochowa: the cave entrance is right by the path, and the limestone rocks in the woods are impressive from outside too. Do not go in, do not dig in the cave floor and do not bypass the barriers. About an hour is enough for a walk through the reserve; the Katowice environmental directorate's website has more on its rules.