Nowiny Quarry

In the pine forest on the south-eastern slope of Krzyżowa Góra, a wide, pale basin of a disused quarry opens up. Its walls, about 200 m long and more than ten metres high, show a cross-section of the Roztocze hills like a geology textbook, and a wooden viewing platform above the edge looks out over the forests of the Puszcza Solska.

Shells millions of years old

The walls show alternating thick layers of detrital limestone, formed from broken-down sediment, and thin beds of limestone made of crushed remains of marine organisms. They were laid down in a shallow, warm sea about 11.6–16 million years ago, in the Miocene. The crumbly rock often contains tiny shells, and sometimes also scallops and oysters.

History of the quarry

For many years Miocene limestone was quarried here for building. The stone was taken by narrow-gauge railway to the station in Nowiny, and locals burned the more calcium-rich rock into lime in simple kilns. In 1944–1945 prisoners from the nearby Soviet NKVD and Polish communist security camp at Błudek worked in the quarry, most of them soldiers of the Home Army (Armia Krajowa), the wartime Polish underground. Hard labour, terrible conditions and executions cost many of them their lives; estimates vary widely, from several dozen to over two hundred. A symbolic cemetery with a memorial stands in the forest nearby.

Tripto tips

The quarry lies about 200 m from the Susiec – Józefów road, within the Puszcza Solska Landscape Park, and there is a forest parking area on the approach. Allow 30–60 minutes to walk across the quarry floor and climb the platform. If you look for shells, do not climb the walls – the rock is crumbly. Combine the visit with the Błudek memorial and the Czartowe Pole nature reserve, about 2.5 km to the west. Nearby is also the small Nowiny reserve (3.83 ha), which protects forest ponds with peat bogs, small white water lilies and sundews. It is an easy bike ride from Susiec.