Wilcza Góra (Wolf Mountain) near Złotoryja

About 15.5 million years ago a volcano was active on the edge of today's Złotoryja. The cone is long gone, but its vent remains, and quarry walls have sliced through it like a knife. As a result, Wilcza Góra, also called Wilkołak, offers an almost complete cross-section through the inside of a volcano and one of the most striking basalt forms in Poland – the basalt rose.

Geology: a volcanic neck, not a cone

Wilkołak is a basalt hill 367 m high in the Kaczawskie Foothills, between Złotoryja, Jerzmanice and Wilków. It is what is left of a volcano active in the Middle Miocene, but what you see is not a cone but a volcanic neck – the remains of the vent through which magma rose to the surface. The quarry faces expose various volcanic rocks and older Upper Cretaceous sandstones.

The most remarkable feature is the basalt rose: cracked, curved columns with five-sided cross-sections radiating like a star from one point. A nature reserve of about 1.6 hectares was created here in 1959.

What to see

• The basalt rose in the reserve and walls of vertical and tilted basalt columns.
• Crevice ferns – common polypody and spleenworts growing in cracks in the weathering basalt.
• Pseudo-karst caves at the foot, in the sandstones: Wolf's Den (7 m) and Bear's Den (2 m).
• The old quarry pits surrounding the summit on three sides.

Quarry history

Basanite quarrying began here in the early 20th century. Stone from Wilcza Góra was used, among other things, for Warsaw's East-West Route, the Łazienkowska Route, the Palace of Culture and Science and the Warsaw Metro. Quarrying destroyed some 30–40% of the hill and lowered it from 373 to 367 m. On the night of 25–26 August 2019 part of the slope collapsed. The reclaimed former quarry was handed over to the municipality of Złotoryja in September 2013. In the 19th century there was a mountain hostel on the summit, and in the German era a glider landing ground.

Tripto tip

The reserve lies about 2 km south of central Złotoryja. Keep away from the quarry edges – the slopes can be unstable, as the 2019 landslip showed. Nature-reserve rules apply, so do not take any stones. Allow one to two hours.