Nature

Okiennik Wielki Rock in the Jura

Okiennik Wielki is the best-known rock outlier in the Silesian part of the Kraków-Częstochowa Upland and one of its symbols. It rises at the border of the villages of Piaseczno and Skarżyce (Kroczyce commune), right beside the red Trail of the Eagles' Nests, and can be seen from afar — the summit is pierced by a window measuring about 7 × 5 metres.

A former cave with a window

Okiennik is in fact the remnant of a former cave: weathering destroyed the softer limestone, leaving only the hardest core, about 50 metres tall. The opening on top is the old cave chamber, and below it lies another 9-metre cave — bright and dry, though draughty, as it has two openings.

One hundred thousand years of people

Archaeologists have found traces of humans from roughly 100,000 years ago, from the Middle Palaeolithic: flint tools (those found in 1921 went to the Museum of Archaeology of the Polish Academy of Sciences), charcoal, pottery shards and iron objects from the Middle Ages. The window shows sockets left by beams of an 11th-century stronghold — historians still argue whether a castle really stood here, linking the rock with the legendary robber Malarski and the nearby Bąkowiec.

Climbing and Juromania

For climbers Okiennik is one of the most interesting crags of the Upland; the hardest route, "Super Akcje", is graded VI.6. A path from the back leads right up to the window, but it is safe only as far as the lower opening. Every September the rock hosts Juromania — a festival of the Jura where, under instructors' supervision, you can try rappelling from the window.

In practice

Reach the rock from the free car park on Okiennik Street in Piaseczno; the walk takes a few minutes, and a hardened path circles the rock. The rock is unfenced — take care, especially with children.