Stone Barns of Mstów

On a hill outside Mstów stand white stone walls without roofs, with a few barns still roofed among them – from a distance it looks like an abandoned village. This is the old barn quarter on Ściegna hill: a group of about thirty masonry barns from the turn of the 20th century, built of Jurassic limestone. It is an unusual piece of rural architecture and one of the best viewpoints over Mstów and the Warta valley.

Why the barns stand on the hill

Mstów was a town for almost six centuries – it was granted town rights with the consent of Duke Bolesław the Chaste in 1278–1279 and lost them in 1870, when the Tsarist authorities stripped many towns of their status in reprisal for the January Uprising. Plots in the cramped centre were small, and timber buildings caught fire easily. So farmers built their barns together, away from the town, on the slopes of Ściegna hill (281 m). If a fire broke out, it would not destroy homes and harvest at the same time. The barns were built of local limestone and timber and roofed with straw thatch.

What you'll see

Most of the buildings are now ruins: long, whitening walls of broken limestone, gables with brick corners and narrow ventilation slits. Some barns still have roofs and timber gables or doors. The group sits on an open, grassy slope on the north side of the hill, so the ruins stand out against the sky. From the top there is a panorama of Mstów with the buildings of the former monastery of the Canons Regular in Wancerzów. Researcher Aleksandra Krupa-Ławrynowicz traced the barns' history using archaeology, ethnology and archives, which revived local interest in this forgotten monument.

Nearby

• Skała Miłości (Love Rock) on the Warta – a 15-metre limestone outcrop, the northernmost rock of the Kraków-Częstochowa Upland, with climbing routes.
• Stróżnica hill with the district's only surviving lime kiln and the Za Kaflarnią cave.
• Jar Małuski – a ravine with dry calcareous grassland, enclosed by Ściegna and other hills.
• Kayaking on the Warta from the Mirów Gate to Mstów – from the river you can see Ściegna hill and the monastery.

Tripto tip

Allow 30–60 minutes for a walk among the barns; the best light is towards evening, when the limestone walls turn golden. The site is open, but the ruins are not secured – don't climb the walls and watch for loose stones. After rain the grassy slope can be slippery. Afterwards head down to the Warta below Skała Miłości, a few minutes from the centre of Mstów.