Limestone Rocks of the Kraków-Częstochowa Upland

White limestone outcrops rising out of the woods and fields are the signature of the Kraków-Częstochowa Upland – and the reason the whole region is simply called the Jura. The rock formed on the floor of a shallow sea in the Late Jurassic, and water and weathering later carved out the free-standing towers. Today this is one of Poland's most important climbing areas, as well as a landscape full of legends, caves and traces of the earliest inhabitants.

How they formed

The upland was repeatedly covered by the sea, so it is built of layers of limestone, marl and dolomite – mostly Upper Jurassic limestone from an epoch that lasted from about 161 to 145 million years ago. The rocks of the Bolechowice Gate, for example, are reef-like massive limestones laid down in a warm sea. Karst processes in the warm climate of the Tertiary then carved out towers up to several dozen metres high. The same processes hollowed out caves: around 1,500 have been described in the Jura, nearly 700 in Ojców National Park alone.

The most famous rocks

• Hercules' Club (Maczuga Herkulesa) in Pieskowa Skała, Ojców National Park – about 25 m high, on a rock terrace below the castle. The first confirmed ascent was made by Ludwik Ziemblic in 1913; climbing has been banned since the national park was created. It was once known as Krak's Club or Falcon Rock, each name with its own legend.
• The Bolechowice Gate in Karniowice near Kraków – two rocks, Filar Pokutników and Filar Abazego, form a gateway at the mouth of the Bolechowice Valley. A geology board by Kraków's AGH University stands on the meadow in front, and from the hill east of Filar Pokutników you can see Kraków.
• Okiennik Wielki in Piaseczno near Kroczyce – a rock with a "window" about 7 × 5 m. In the 12th–13th centuries a wooden stronghold stood at its foot, and in the cave below the window archaeologists found flint tools about 60,000 years old.
• The Rzędkowice Rocks – a rocky ridge more than a kilometre long, a protected natural monument of 44.5 ha since 2009. Scythian arrowheads from around 600 BC were found in the Okiennik Rzędkowicki rock.

Penitents and climbers

Climbing in the Jura has almost a century of history. In the Bolechowice Valley it began in 1925 with members of a Kraków university sports club who came every Sunday and holiday, in heat and frost alike. Villagers in Bolechowice nicknamed them Pokutnicy (the Penitents) – with their rattling ropes and gear, the climbers reminded them of souls doing penance for their sins. In 1982 Wojciech Kurtyka climbed the Rysa Babińskiego crack (VI.2+) here without a rope in front of witnesses, a sensation across Europe. Popular areas today include Podlesice with Góra Zborów, the Rzędkowice Rocks, Okiennik Wielki and the Kraków Valleys; Okiennik alone has 110 routes.

Tripto tip

Most outcrops stand in open country and can be seen without tickets; the exceptions are the national park and nature reserves, where you must stay on marked trails. Hercules' Club pairs easily with Pieskowa Skała Castle, the Bolechowice Gate with a short walk on the black trail from Bolechowice, and Okiennik Wielki with the Trail of the Eagles' Nests, which passes right by. Only climb where it is permitted, and only on existing routes.