Former Narrow-Gauge Railway Cycle Path in the Barycz Valley

The cycle path along the former narrow-gauge railway is roughly 20 km of flat riding in the Barycz Valley, laid on the embankment of the dismantled Żmigród–Milicz District Railway. The stretch from Sułów via Pracze, Postolin and Milicz to Grabownica by the Milicz Ponds is the most popular part of a longer 68-kilometre railway trail. Along the way you will find shelters on the sites of old stops, displays of rolling stock and an aquarium with fish from the Milicz ponds.

History: the little train that was lost

In 1893 the joint-stock company Trachenberger-Militscher Kreisbahn was founded to build a line from Żmigród via Milicz to Sulmierzyce. The project met with protests – Milicz residents feared fires from locomotive sparks – but on 8 December 1894 the Żmigród–Prusice section opened, and on 1 October 1895 the first scheduled train ran from Przedkowice to Milicz and Sulmierzyce. The track gauge was 750 mm and trains ran at about 25 km/h. They carried sugar beet, potatoes, grain, timber and passengers – more than 50,000 of them in 1896.

After 1945 the line was taken over by Polish State Railways, and in 1956 the whole route from Wrocław to Sulmierzyce became the Wrocław Access Railway. Buses and cars gradually took away its passengers, and after the changes of 1989–1991 it was decided to close it. The last farewell run took place on 14 September 1991, after which the tracks were quickly removed.

What to see along the way

• Sułów – start of the section, with a car park and rolling-stock display by the old station buildings; remains of the platform can be spotted in the undergrowth.
• Pracze – a shelter on the site of the stop and a historic bell tower from 1846.
• Postolin – a panorama of the Barycz ice-marginal valley from the edge of the moraine hills, a park with exotic trees created by Heinrich von Salisch and a 19th-century half-timbered Church of Christ the King.
• Milicz Zamek – a large shelter, toilet, playground and a covered aquarium with freshwater fish from the Milicz ponds; next to it stand an MBxd1 railcar from the mid-1960s, a luggage van and a Diema motor trolley.
• Grabownica – the end of the path between the village and the Machnickie ponds, with a viewpoint and tower overlooking the large Grabownica pond.

Did you know

The very first stretch of the cycle path to open was Grabownica–Sułów, while the whole railway trail was completed only in 2021. Grabownica pond was first recorded in 1639, and in 1947 naturalist and film-maker Włodzimierz Puchalski shot his film "Bird Island" there. Along the route you can still spot railway bridges, fragments of track bed and the odd hectometre post.

Tripto tips

• Surface: between Sułów and Milicz it is mostly asphalt, but beyond Pracze and from Milicz to Grabownica it is compacted granite grit – fine for trekking bikes and families, less so for inline skates.
• Time needed: about 20 km one way means 1.5–2 hours of easy riding; with stops and a stroll around Milicz, allow half a day.
• Getting there: there is a car park in Sułów and a smaller one in Grabownica. In Milicz the path is often used by pedestrians, so slow down.
• Further on: beyond Grabownica the old line continued to Sulmierzyce, but there is no paved path or shelters – an option only for the determined.
• Access: free, open all year round.