Las Murckowski Nature Reserve in Katowice

The highest point in Katowice is not a tower block or a slag heap but the beech-covered Wanda Hill (Wzgórze Wandy, about 357 m above sea level). Its slopes hold the Las Murckowski nature reserve – a patch of mixed forest that comes closer than anything else in the region to the old Silesian Primeval Forest. Beeches more than a century old grow just a few hundred metres from the four-lane road to Bielsko-Biała.

History: from 7 to more than 140 hectares

The reserve was created on 18 December 1953 and covered only about 7 ha. In 1989 it grew to roughly 100 ha, and an order by the Regional Director for Environmental Protection in Katowice dated 22 November 2022 enlarged it to 141.56 ha. Today it consists of three parts, surrounded by a buffer zone of more than 256 ha. The oldest, western section by the former Murcki colliery is cut off from the rest by ulica Bielska, the expressway between Katowice and Bielsko-Biała.

The aim is to protect a near-natural forest right next to a huge urban area. The reserve serves science and education, and the main threats remain road traffic and the effects of underground coal mining.

What to see

The highlight is the old beech stand – reserve descriptions put the trees at more than 150 years old, including monumental beeches and oaks. Acidic lowland beech forest dominates. The terrain is folded by small stream valleys, and the springs of the Przyrwa stream rise inside the reserve.

• Plants – about 210 species of vascular plants, including snowdrops, broad-leaved helleborine, common twayblade, asarabacca, sweet woodruff and lily of the valley. Mountain species such as whorled Solomon's seal and white butterbur also appear.
• Fungi – the protected common stinkhorn and the giant polypore, which lives on decaying beech wood.
• Mosses – surveys in 1995–1997 recorded several dozen species of mosses and liverworts.
• Animals – woodpeckers, robins, cuckoos, common toads, sand lizards and red squirrels; 33 species are legally protected.

Did you know?

Las Murckowski is only a small part of the much larger Murcki Forests (about 90 km² across Katowice, Tychy and Mysłowice), which for centuries belonged to the Pszczyna estate. In 1865 four bison from Białowieża, exchanged by the Prince of Pszczyna for twenty red deer, were first kept near Murcki – before they became the famous Pszczyna bison herd. The same forest complex, in the Ślepiotka valley, also holds Katowice's second reserve, Ochojec (since 1982), which protects a rare mountain plant, the clasping twisted stalk.

Tripto tip

You may only walk or cycle through the reserve on the marked visitor route. Waymarked hiking and cycling trails offer longer loops through the wider Murcki Forests. Allow 1–2 hours for a walk through the beech woods; spring, when the forest floor is in flower, and autumn, when the beeches turn gold, are the best times. Watch out for dying trees along ulica Białobrzeska and ulica Węgierska – in 2026 the Katowice Forest District removed some that threatened the road.