Monuments & mounds

The Ring in Sandomierz

On the steep Zamkowa street, at the junction with Żydowska street, between the Sandomierz market square and the castle, stands a monument impossible to pass indifferently: a ring about a metre in diameter set with a huge eye of striped flint. The whole weighs 80 kilograms, the flint „eye" alone 30 kilograms.

The monument references the raw material once mined in the area and now used chiefly in jewellery. Its author is the Sandomierz artist Cezary Łutowicz, a pioneer of using striped flint in goldsmithing — his workshop sits opposite the monument, where he has been creating handmade pieces for about 50 years. Striped flint is an ornamental variety of flint with a concentric, regular arrangement of dark and light bands forming patterns no other rock repeats.

Why it is worth a visit

The ring has become one of the recognisable symbols of the town and a backdrop for photographs of almost every visitor. The neighbourhood does the rest: a few steps lead to the market square, cathedral and castle, and a longer walk can head towards the Pepper Mountains, framing the eastern edge of the panorama of Sandomierz, named a Monument of History in 2017.

Practical information

The monument stands in open access and can be viewed around the clock all year round, with no tickets or fences. It is easiest to reach on foot from the market square — Zamkowa street runs downhill towards the Vistula, so plan the return uphill via Żydowska street, popping into the workshop and nearby shops on the way.