Okiennik Wielki

At the top of a limestone crag in the village of Piaseczno gapes a window measuring about 7 × 5 m – hence the name Okiennik Wielki, roughly "the Great Window Rock", one of the symbols of the northern Kraków-Częstochowa Upland, known as the Polish Jura. Below the window archaeologists found tools left by people about 60,000 years ago, and the rock is wrapped in stories of a medieval stronghold and the outlaw Malarski. Today it is also one of the region's favourite climbing spots.

A rock with a window and three caves

Okiennik Wielki (also called Okiennik Duży or Okiennik Skarżycki) is a group of limestone rocks in Piaseczno, in the Kroczyce municipality, right on the boundary with Skarżyce. The best-known is the rock with the window; climbers call its highest face the Ściana Czołowa (Front Wall), about 35 m high. Below the window lies the cave Schron w Okienniku Wielkim, with two more nearby: Komin and Szczelina. The whole massif is a protected geosite.

People 60,000 years ago and a fort on the rock

In the Schron cave archaeologists found flint tools from the Middle Palaeolithic, about 60,000 years old, attributed to the Micoquian culture – proof that prehistoric people lived here. Much later, around the 12th–13th centuries according to historians, a timber stronghold stood at the foot of the rocks; traces of its walls were still visible in the 19th century. The window rock is thought to have served as a keep, and a hole carved into the window probably held a protective wooden screen.

The legend of Malarski

The Kroczyce municipality keeps alive the legend of Malarski, the "Jura Janosik" – a local Robin Hood figure. He was said to live in the rocks of Okiennik, rob the rich and give to the poor, never killing anyone but playing tricks on people. Stories about him survived in nearby villages such as Ryczów and made it into 19th-century literature. According to legend, his ghost still startles horses on the road to Kroczyce.

Climbing

The first documented climbs here date from 1962, and the real boom came in the 1980s. Across the group – including Bliźniacza Baszta, Igła nad Przechodem, Muminek and Śląski Filar – there are about 110 routes graded from III to VI.7+ on the Polish Kurtyka scale. Most are bolted, though there are trad lines too, and some routes on the Front Wall need a 70 m rope.

Tripto tip

Two marked trails pass the rocks: the red Trail of the Eagles' Nests (on to the castle ruins in Morsko and Góra Zborów) and the Skarżyce Trail from Zawiercie Borowe Pole station. Allow 45–60 minutes to walk around the rocks and look up at the window from the path. The rocks are not fenced and edges can be slippery – keep children on the paths and don't scramble higher without gear and experience.