Fossil Exhibition in the Monastery Cellars, Żarki

By the churchyard square of the Leśniów sanctuary, in a brick cellar with early 20th-century arched vaults, lies a slice of the Jurassic seabed. The Exhibition of Jurassic Fossils and Minerals displays around 1,000 original specimens, most of them dug out of the rocks in and around Żarki. The largest ammonites here measure up to 50 cm across.

Where the fossils come from

The limestone that makes up the whole Kraków-Częstochowa Upland formed on the floor of a warm sea that covered the region in the Jurassic period. The animal remains trapped in it are now fossils that turn up in quarries, castle walls and rocky paths. The symbol of the Jura is the ammonite: an extinct cephalopod with a spiral shell, a relative of today's nautilus. The Leśniów collection is privately owned by a collector from Żarki.

What to see

• Ammonites from 1 to 50 cm in diameter, the stars of the collection.
• Belemnites 1 to 20 cm long, the fossilised internal skeletons of other extinct cephalopods.
• Sponges, brachiopods, bivalves, sea urchins and their spines, plus Jurassic crabs, petrified wood and flint.
• Minerals from Poland and around the world, and historical photographs of Żarki and Leśniów.

Leśniów in a nutshell

The exhibition sits next to the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Leśniów, Patroness of Families, run by the Pauline Fathers. According to legend, in 1382 Duke Władysław of Opole stopped here on his way from Ruthenia, and after prayers before a statue of the Virgin a spring burst from the ground. The Paulines received the church in 1706, built the stone monastery in 1755–1768, and in 1967 Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński crowned the statue in the presence of Cardinal Karol Wojtyła, the future Pope John Paul II.

Tripto tip

A guided visit takes about 15 minutes, so the exhibition is a good add-on to a visit to the sanctuary and its spring. It is open all year; current hours and prices are published on amonity.com, and the Jura tourism portal lists the phone number +48 535 106 119. The address is ul. Leśniowska 99, Żarki. Souvenirs are on sale, and if the children get hooked, they can hunt for ammonites on the Jura trails afterwards.