Rogoźnik Quarry

The disused quarry in Rogoźnik, in the Bobrowniki municipality (Będzin County), is for those who prefer wild, overgrown workings to polished attractions. The village lies in a small basin between the Buczyna and Sadowie hills, and the surrounding high ground is made of Triassic shelly limestone (Muschelkalk) covered by a thin layer of rendzina soil.

A landscape of extraction

For centuries Rogoźnik lived off what lay underground. Around 1797 the "Fanny" calamine mine opened on the border of Rogoźnik, Wojkowice and Żychcice and ran until 1807; in 1822–1840 the calamine mined here was carted to the smelter in Milowice. Three small iron-ore mines also operated in the village, and the best-known trace of old mining is a pit called Rudny Dół (Ore Hollow) on the slopes of Buczyna. On Buczyna itself (377 m above sea level) you can make out faint karst hollows – evidence of processes that may have carved caves, now inaccessible, into the Triassic limestone.

The legend of the petrified miners

A local tale tells of miners who dug through the hills in search of ore until a witch turned them and their horses to stone. The piles of stones on the slopes along the road to Siemonia are said to be their remains, and a deep hollow nearby the place where the witch herself was turned into a boulder. It is a good story for a walk through an area where people have reshaped the land for centuries.

Tripto tips

• There are no visitor facilities or supervision here. Wear sturdy shoes and expect mud after rain. Visibility is best in late autumn and winter, when vegetation does not hide the quarry walls.
• The quarry lies in the eastern part of the village, near the hamlet of Węgroda.
• Combine the walk with a visit to the Rogoźnik I and II reservoirs (38 ha in total) at the foot of Buczyna, a recreation area for residents of the municipality and nearby towns.