2. The periphery walk
THE ROUTE IS MARKED IN RED (map no. 2):
PKS Bus Station – ul. W. Korfantego – ul. Kolejowa – ul. Liburnia – unnamed path – ul. S. Moniuszki – ul. F. Chopina – footpath behind Primary School no. 2 – ul. K. Szymanowskiego – ul. N. Bucewicza – ul. Piękna – ul. Partyzantów – ul. Hażlaska – ul. Rudowska – Rudów – path through Parchowiec Woods – end of ul. Szarotka – path through Parchowiec Woods – turning off ul. Katowicka – ul. Katowicka – ul. Łanowa – ul. Gajowa – ul. Bukowa – ul. Frysztacka – path through woods parallel to ul. Frysztacka – ul. Leśna – path through Kopce nature reserve – ul. Dzika – ul. Majowa – ul. Ładna – ul. Frysztacka – ul. Łukowa – ul. Folwarczna – ul. Hażlaska – ul. Zamkowa – ul. Czarny Chodnik – PKP Railway Station.
Length of walk – 15.5 km. For the section from Rudów to ul. Katowicka walkers should be equipped with hiking boots or Wellington boots (particularly after rain and in the early spring and late autumn).
We begin the walk in front of the PKS Bus Station by the ul. W. Korfantego entrance. We turn left into ul. Kolejowa and then across the flyover. To the left, on the right bank of the Bobrówka, is the Starostwo Powiatowe (District Council headquarters) and the Shopping Centre. The Kiesling and Skrobanek forging works was founded on this spot in 1936. After the war it was the Cieszyn tool factory, and later Celma Power Tools. On the right is the indoor market (Wednesdays and Saturdays are market days). The Bilowicki works was located here in 1903 and later the Termika works.
On the hillside in front of us is the imposing neo-Baroque convent of the Grey Nuns of St. Elizabeth, built as the order’s new home in 1903. It is built on a horseshoe plan, designed by Müller and houses the convent with a church and a hospital. The external elevation is decorated with figures of saints, while within the western courtyard is a stone grotto dedicated to the Holy Mother of Lourdes.
We turn left into ul. Liburnia by the convent, and after about 400 m turn right into a track laid with concrete slabs. The track quickly turns into a path which rises steeply and takes us to ul. Moniuszki by the bus stop. From here we have a beautiful view of Cieszyn’s old town and its seven towers, Český Těąín, the Ropice range on the Czech side of the Beskid Mountains and the housing estate on Mały Jaworowy. We turn left and soon right into ul. F. Chopina. We are entering the Liburnia Estate which was begun to be built in 1970. When we reach the boundary fence of Primary School no. 2 we turn left and walk along the fence. We soon reach ul. K. Szymanowskiego, where we turn left. With the new Jewish cemetery on our left we reach ul. Bucewicza, and ahead of us is the Hotel Gambit. We turn right and, walking through a residential district, arrive at ul. Piękna which we turn left into. We continue to walk amongst houses until ul. Partyzantów. Here we have a panoramic view of the Piastowskie Estate, which was built in the 1980s, and the picturesque valley of the stream which emerges below the junction of ul. Hażlaska and Gruntowa. We turn left into the unmade ul. Partyzantów, go uphill for a short while and turn right into ul. Hażlaska soon afterwards. As we walk up the hill we pass the electricity transformer on our left, the Auto-Gaz station on our right, with the Hotel Orbis-Halny behind it. After about 900 m we reach a footbridge crossing National Route 1 which leads to the border crossing. After crossing the bridge we enter the Pastwiska district of Cieszyn, and as we look down to the right from the hillside a magnificent view of the Silesian Beskid and Silesian-Moravian Beskid Mountains unfolds before us. On the left is Łazek, with Chełm in front of it, Szyndzielnia, Błotny, Klimczok, Lipowski Groń, Równica, Skrzyczne (with a television mast), Małe Skrzyczne, Malinów, Zielony Kopiec, Magurka Wiślańska, Barania Góra, Wielka Czantoria, Mała Czantoria. In front of them are Jasieniowa, Tuł, Ostrý, Wróżna, and Soszów, Cieślar, Stożek, the Olza valley, Kozubová, Ostrý (with a television mast), Javorový, Ropice, Velký Lipový, Ropička, Travný, Lysá hora (with a television mast), Malchor, Praąivá, Radhoąť, Ondřejník, Metylovícke horky.
We are now in Pastwiska. The name of the village is linked to cattle pastures owned by several Cieszyn landowners at the end of the 16th century. Documents dating from 1565 confirm the existence of a grange here. We continue along ul. Hażlaska. On the left is the Volunteer Fire Service Station with a wooden statue of St. Florian in a niche. Next to it is a wayside shrine on a wooden post dedicated to the Black Madonna of Częstochowa. We reach the junction of several roads on the top of the hill called Boża Męka (fig. 37). There is a simple wayside shrine here, which is said to have been erected on a grave of Swedish soldiers caught in a trap by Austrian forces in 1646. They were murdered in spite of previous assurances that they would be allowed to leave the besieged castle in Cieszyn safely. Going downhill along ul. Katowicka we come to Primary School no.6. Until 1981 a penitential cross lay in undergrowth opposite the school. A legend links the cross with the enlargement of grazing land here. Cieszyn townspeople approached Prince Mieszko (it most probably refers to Prince Mieszko I, who ruled here in the 13th century) about the possibility of extending their pastures. The prince decided that the boundary of the village would be fixed at the point to which a released convict could carry the stone cross. The stone, weighing around 250 kg, was carried to a point beyond the school by an immensely strong convict. The cross lay there for centuries until a bulldozer operator filling in trenches dug for cables, no doubt unintentionally, covered it with earth. Next to the cross, one of two remaining in the Cieszyn region, stood a stone engraved with the letters „TK”, demarcating the boundary of the Komora Cieszyńska.
We cross the busy ul. Katowicka by the pedestrian crossing and continue along ul. Rudowska. On both sides of the street are houses and well-kept gardens. We reach the junction with ul. Wrzosów. By turning left into it and then right into ul. Jaskrów we find ourselves in the gully carved out by the Piotrówka, whose source is further up the valley. The Piotrówka, which flows into the Olza, is one the most extensive drainage basins in the western part of the Pogórze Cieszyńskie Hills. On the far side of the river the new church of Divine Mercy is clearly visible. Ul. Rudowska continues down to the Piotrówka valley. Soon after, we cross the river exactly where the border between Cieszyn and the Hażlach commune runs. We have now entered Rudów (fig. 38), an outlying part of the village of Zamarski. We soon pass ul. Kamienna going away from us to the right. We continue along the Piotrówka valley with the picturesque Pogórze Cieszyńskie Hills on our right. They fall away towards the north-west from the main ridge called Zamarski. On our left we see the dark wall of trees of Parchowiec Woods on the hillside. We soon come to a junction and a wayside „Calvary” terrazzo cross founded in 1975 by Małgorzata Skudrzyk. On the plinth of the cross is an inscription with the biblical quotation, „I am the Way, the Truth and the Life.” Ul. Rajdowa goes off to the right. We turn left into a track which rises towards the trees. We pass a building and reach another near the edge of the woods. At the edge of the woods on the right is a stone with TK engraved into it, which marked the border of the lands belonging to the Komora Cieszyńska. We turn left into a path here which brings us to dry ground woodland with several mature beeches, prettiest during the springtime. The following flowers bloom in the spring; yellow oxlip (fig. 39), lesser celandine (fig.40) and yellow star-of-Bethlehem (fig. 41), mauve Suffolk lungwort (fig. 42), toothwort (fig. 43) and hollowroot (fig. 44), white wood anemone and blue liverleaf (fig. 57). We may also come across asarabacca – a protected species (fig. 46), sweet wood-ruff, and the intensively fragrant ramsons (fig. 47). Apart from Bielowiec Woods, Parchowiec Woods are the only place you can see this kind of gully. They come about as a result of the powerful erosive effect of rainwater on the layers of loess covering the hillsides. A network of gullies is then formed whose density is measured by adding up their combined lengths over an area of 1 km2. We pass one of the gullies which goes off to the left. Soon we reach a point where the paths cross and continue straight ahead. The trail which becomes more and more rocky takes us to the top of the hill and, by the edge of the wood, to Kalembice just by ul. Szarotka. Kalembice has been a district of Cieszyn since 1973, although it used to be a separate village with the first reference to it in 1305. The last owner of the village was Karol Cselesta, in the 18th century. After him the Komora Cieszyńska took over the running of the village.
We turn right into an indistinct woodland trail just before the building belonging to the Polish Association of Homing Pigeon Breeders in Kalembice. Soon the trail forks; we take the left fork and start descending the gully, keeping to the left. The road turns into a track. On the way we pass a patch of special-status protected lesser periwinkle and isolated specimens of ivy (fig. 48) – also a protected species. We reach a stream which flows into the Piotrówka and cross it. In the spring and autumn after heavy rainfall it may be difficult to cross this stream, so outdoor footwear is recommended. We climb up the other side and come to a wire mesh fence. On the left we can hunt for another stone with the characteristic inscription „TK”, marking the boundary of the territory of the Komora Cieszyńska. We continue along by the fence and reach a gravel side road off ul. Katowicka. We pass a forest trail leading off to the right. Just beyond we may see blooming ivy climbing on trees and a sports field. In a short while we reach ul. Katowicka, part of Route 938, which we cross (pedestrians have to be particularly vigilant of the heavy traffic on this road). We pass the Kalembice Zegarnikówka bus and PKS coach stop.
After the bus stop we turn right and soon left into ul. Łanowa (fig. 49). We climb almost to the top of hill 347 (to the right). The panorama of the Silesian Beskid and Silesian-Moravian Beskid Mountains is constantly in view (fig. 50). We pass a clump of trees and then reach a turning going off to the right towards buildings 100a, b, c, and 102a and 102b. From here we can enjoy probably the most beautiful view in Cieszyn. Starting from the left there is; Błotny, Stołowy, Klimczok, Magurka, the Brennica valley, Lipowski Groń, Równica, Małe Skrzyczne, Malinów, Zielony Kopiec, Magurka Wiślańska, Barania Góra, Mała Czantoria, Wielka Czantoria, Jasieniowa, Tuł and Ostry, in the distance; Soszów, Cieślar, Stożek, Kiczory, Girová, Skalka in the Polom massif, Kozubová, Ostrý, Javorový, Ropice, Gutský vrąek, Velký Lipový, Přislop, Ropička, Travný,, Godula, Lysá hora with Malchor, Čupel, Praąivá, Smrk, Kněhyně, Radhoąť, Ondřejník, Mistřovický kopec, Žukovský kopec and other, less significant, hills of the Silesian Moravian Pogórze Hills. We descend along ul. Łanowa and soon after turn right into ul. Gajowa. The asphalt road finishes after house no. 32. We enter a gully with trees typical of dry ground woodland (actually part of Szczypie Woods). Among the undergrowth can be made out stalks of ramsons (fig. 47), toothwort (fig. 43) and tuberous comfrey. We come out onto a low rise, from where we can see the high-rise blocks of Karviná. We come to the next gully, also within Szczypie Woods. On its sides grow mature beech, sycamore, oak, hornbeam and larch. In the undergrowth we can spot hollowroot (fig. 44), coralroot and ramsons – particularly eye-catching in the spring. The road bends and after a short while we reach the junction with ul. Bukowa. We pass a characteristic A-shaped post and ul. Leśna goes off to the left. The Kopce nature reserve can be seen to our left. Continuing along ul. Bukowa, with first woods and then a pine plantation on our right, we come to the first buildings. Here it is worthwhile stopping to admire a magnificent panorama of Pogwizdów with its church and the high-rise blocks built for miners working in the Morcinek colliery (now closed). Beyond Pogwizdów we can see the housing estates of Karviná, to the left the Detmarovice power station, the largest in Moravia and Czech Silesia, the ČSM colliery in Stonava, the Podobora archeological park in Chotebuz, behind it the 9. Kveten colliery in Horní Suchá, the waste treatment plant, the roofs of the Polifarb Cieszyn-Wrocław paint and varnish factory and beyond them the hills of Chotebuz and Mistřovický, and furthest in the background Kostelec and Żwirkowisko. At this point the track turns into a tarmac road. We continue in a northerly direction. Soon after a rough track coming off ul. Zagrodowa joins our road. We continue along ul. Bukowa, which turns to the left here. The road is built of granite cobbles at this point but soon after of concrete blocks. We continue to descend toward the Olza valley with the Polifarb Cieszyn-Wrocław works in front of us. Ul. Miodowa, a road surfaced with concrete blocks, goes off to the right. We continue straight ahead along ul. Bukowa, whose surface is again tarmacked, to its junction with ul. Frysztacka. On our right is the impressive modern Lutheran church built on the site of the former cemetery in 1987. It was designed by Edward Kisiel and Henryk Raszka. We join ul. Frysztacka and turn left into it. We are now in Marklowice, a district of Cieszyn since 1975.
Marklowice first appears in historical documents in 1523. A fortified Renaissance manor house was most probably built here at the beginning of the 16th century. In 1612 the Prince of Cieszyn, Adam Wacław, gave it to his lover, Małgorzata Koschlinger (or Kostlich), the mother of his bastard son, Wacław Gotfryd. Wacław Gotfryd was legitimised in 1640 and gained the title of Baron von Hohenstein, thanks to the efforts of his half-sister, Elżbieta Lukrecja. The Marklowice manor remained in the possession of Wacław Gotfryd and his son Ferdynand until 1672. It was later taken over by the Habsburgs. It is now divided up into flats. Fragments of the original architecture are still visible.
We are walking along the very busy ul. Frysztacka. We must remember to proceed with particular caution here and walk along the left hand side as the road does not have pavements. On our right the new Catholic church (with a large wooden cross) is being built. On the left is a dry ground copse with several small gullies and great swathes of ramsons (fig. 47). We reach the level crossing. Just before the crossing we join a clear path running along the tracks. The path soon begins to go uphill and joins ul. Leśna. From this point we descend and then reach the point where ul. Leśna crosses the railway tracks of the Cieszyn-Zebrzydowice line and joins ul. Frysztacka. The railway was originally built in 1914, initially as far as Sucha. After the new border between Poland and Czechoslovakia was established in 1920 the line ceased to have any importance. A new stretch of track was built between Marklowice and Zebrzydowice in 1934. Close to the junction of ul. Leśna and ul. Frysztacka is the railway station, the Cieszyn Marklowice PKS coach stop and ZGK bus stop for the 30, 31 and 32 routes. The Na Kopcach Nature Reserve can also be entered here (fig. 51) and there is a notice-board announcing that we are in an officially protected area.
The Kopce nature reserve was opened in 1953 on an area of 14.77 ha for the protection of natural areas of broadleaved woodland and Hacquetia epipactis. If we continue walking along the hillside by the edge of the wood towards the sewage treatment plant, along the track called Pod Skałką, we come to some outcrops of Cieszyn limestone. Along the way can be seen lords-and-ladies (figs. 52 and 78), a plant well known for its strange means of reproduction. The path turns left and we enter the reserve. We climb the steep, high slope of the valley side, walking among beech and hornbeam. In the undergrowth, particularly in the spring, can be seen the white blooms of wood anemone and snowdrops (fig. 53), the inconspicuously flowering dog’s mercury (fig. 54), the pale green flowers of the Hacquetia epipactis (fig. 55), the late flowering ramsons (fig. 47) and Solomon’s seal. Under the beech trees can be seen clumps of mauve toothwort (fig. 43) hidden amongst the greenish-brown flowers of asarabacca (fig. 46) and above them blooming hollowroot and spring pea (fig. 56). The path leaves the sides of the gully, bears right and almost levels out. Here the narrow, faintly discernible track turns to the left and continues down some distance to the floor of the gully. In its southern slope can be found a 5-metre-long cave called Ondraszkowa Dziura, in which the celebrated outlaw, Ondraszek, was said to have sought refuge. It is actually a fragment of an old gallery excavated during the mining of teschinite (fig.45).
We leave the stands of Carpathian beech, return to the main path and enter the dry ground woodland. Hornbeam and small-leaved lime dominate here with occasional maple, sycamore, field maple, oak, ash, wild cherry, wych elm and larch. On the forest floor in the spring bloom liverleaf (fig. 57), Suffolk lungwort (fig. 42), sweet wood-ruff, bedstraw and tuberous comfrey. The following protected species can be found in the reserve; ivy (fig. 48), spurge laurel, chlorophyll-lacking orchid, bird’s-nest orchid, great horsetail (fig. 58), lily of the valley, oxlip (fig. 39), cowslip, lesser periwinkle, sweet wood-ruff and alder buckthorn.
The path leaves the reserve at the junction of ulica Dzika, Gajowa and Bukowa. From this point we have a fine view of Cieszyn, Český Těąín, the Silesian Beskid and Silesian-Moravian Beskid Mountains as well as the Silesian-Moravian Pogórze Hills. Down below can be seen the sewage treatment plant and the motor-cross track. The boundary of the Łąki na Kopcach ecological site is here too. The site, with an area of 15.22 ha was established by a resolution of Cieszyn Town Council on 26 October 1995. Several plant communities can be found here. The site is dominated by; oat grass meadows, moist mountain meadows and xerothermic grasses. The following protected species can be found here; meadow saffron, common centaury, cross gentian, silver thistle, great horsetail (fig. 58), guelder-rose (figs. 59 and 60), columbine and spiny rest-harrow.
We continue south along ul. Dzika. We soon climb a small rise from which we have a splendid panorama of Cieszyn (Cieślarówka, Banotówka, Kalembice, Pastwiska), Český Těąín, Třínec and the Beskid Mountains. Just before the junction with ul. Sarnia, ul. Dzika changes from a dirt track into an asphalt road. We continue to descend with a gully on our right. We reach ul. Majowa, a road connecting Kalembice with Boguszowice. We are now in Boguszowice. This former village was given by Mieszko I, the Prince of Cieszyn, to a knight – most probably named Bogusz – in 1291 for faithful service. In 1425 a burgher, Jan Scholz, gave Boguszowice to the hospital, a poorhouse established by the Church of St. George. A military shooting range and arsenal were built here at the end of the 19th century, the arsenal being seized bloodlessly in 1918 by first lieutenant Franciszek Barteczek and a militia force from neighbouring Łąki. In the 1980s a motor-cross track was built near to the military buildings.
The enthusiastic may go about 150 m down the street to the right and then turn right again after reaching an unmade road at the bottom of the hill. 50 m further on we turn right towards the gully we can see in front of us. This will take us to the wall of a disused quarry. In the 19th century this land was investigated by a team of geologists, led by Ludwik Hohenegger, in search of iron ore. In 1861 Hohenegger discovered a new mineral here which he named „teschinite” in honour of Cieszyn (fig. 61). It is an igneous rock appearing as intrusions in layers of Cieszyn limestone, and on the surface as small stocks or dykes surrounded by metamorphosed schist and Cieszyn limestone. It is still possible to find smaller or larger fragments of this rock of augite type with small additions of titanite. It is easily identifiable/ recognisable as it dark green with a grainy surface. It oxidises quickly and the surface becomes brittle and fragile. By the entrance to the gully with the teschinite outcrop we can see hairy Michaelmas-daisies in flower in the autumn – a rare sight in Poland (fig. 62). We go left from the junction of ul. Dzika and Majowa and turn right into ul. Ładna after about 200m. Soon ul. Ładna ascends steeply and we have to negotiate some steps. We pass the nursery on our right and reach the church of Divine Providence. Originally this church was a cemetery chapel, built in 1906. It has been a parish church since 1978. In the churchyard is a monument to 10 victims of Nazi terror during the Second World War (fig. 63). The enthusiastic may descend the steps of ul. Kościelna (left in front of the church) to ul. Kręta. There is an outcrop of Cieszyn limestone with intrusions of teschinite by house no. 12. Turning left beyond this building, we go under the road bridge, pass the purification plant which treats rainwater dripping off the road bridge and the border crossing, and after about 100 m reach the next outcrop of teschinite protected by a resolution of Cieszyn Town Council (passed 5 September 2002). Then it is back to the walk. Beyond the church an imposing road bridge looms up. It was built by the road construction company Dromex in the years 1988 – 1991 to create a modern border crossing on the Polish-Czech border (fig. 64). The bridge was constructed using the method of continuous casting and hoisted onto prepared supports according to the plans of the Department of Bridge-building at the Silesian Technical University in Gliwice. The dimensions of the bridge are as follows; length – 760 m, width – 14.6 m, number of supports – 14, height of supports – up to 26 m, quantity of concrete used – 35,000 m3.
We go down ul. Ładna all the way to ul. Frysztacka. Here we turn left and after around 50 m we pass a renovated wayside shrine with a sheet metal roof on the left of the street dating from 1654 (fig. 65). There is an old stone cross with the date of construction engraved on it attesting to the foundation of the shrine during the time of the Counter-Reformation. Inside, behind a hand-forged grate with the date 1818 on it, is a sculpture of Christ on the Cross. We continue along ul. Frysztacka passing the offices of Energetyka Beskidzka and then the buildings of the Polwid works. It is not far from here to the Cieszyn Karolinka PKS coach stop. We turn left into ul. Łukowa beyond the imposing neo-Baroque building of the Technical and Vocational College no. 2 and in a short while we join ul. Folwarczna. Turning right we soon reach the Church of the Seventh Day Adventists. Our route goes up to the left along ul. Folwarczna. We pass the Karolinka residential district and soon come out on a ridge in ul. Hażlaska. Here we turn right.
We pass the new Jewish cemetery on our left (fig. 66). The cemetery and funeral home were designed by the Viennese architect Gartner. It was opened in 1907 and the last funeral took place on 24 March 1961. The cemetery fell into disrepair after the Second World War but was restored thanks to Edward J. Phillips and Tadeusz J. Dorda from the USA. It is worth looking at the white marble Art Nouveau tombstone of the Glesinger family.
We go down ul. Hażlaska. Soon we reach the old Jewish cemetery on the right hand side (figs. 67 and 68). The cemetery was founded midway through the 17th century. The oldest gravestones date from the end of the 17th century. For 150 years it was the private cemetery of the Singer family and then in 1785 it was sold to the community of so-called ‘tolerated’ Jews. It was the only Jewish cemetery in Cieszyn Silesia until midway through the 19th century. At the end of the 19th century a funeral home, rooms for the cemetery watchman and a coach house for the hearse were built. On 1 and 2 May 1945, during the last days of the Nazi occupation in Cieszyn, the Gestapo executed 81 people here, whose bodies were reburied in a common grave in the municipal cemetery after the war.
Below the cemetery on the left on the corner of ul. F. Chopin is a small wayside shrine restored in 1998, and erected in the place where according to legend a cannon ball struck the commander of the Swedish army leaving Cieszyn castle in 1646. Inside the shrine is a modern statue of Our Lady of Fatima. We are on the hill called Winograd during the Middle Ages. In the 15th century Observantine friars, whose monastery was located on the other side of the Bobrówka, are said to have cultivate vines on the southern slopes on Winograd. We continue to go down ul. Hażlaska. On the corner of ul. Gołębia between two trees is a wayside cross in the form of a stone obelisk with a wooden crucifix and a relief of the Holy Virgin. Just behind ul. św. Jerzego on the left are the walls of the former cemetery built in 1790, enlarged in 1884 and in use until 1901. Buried here were; Karol Miarka, Paweł Stalmach, Fr. Ignacy Świeży (although their remains were later transferred to the municipal cemetery), the painter Edward Świerkiewicz and his daughter, Bronisława, also a painter. Nowadays only two gravestones have legible inscriptions; those of Fr. Karol Findiński and Bishop Franciszek Śniegoń. There are also several cast-iron crosses from the steelworks in Ustroń and Třinec.
We descend some steps to ul. Frysztacka and turn left. St. George’s church is just around the corner. It was originally a chapel serving the hospital which was run by the clergy, built at the turn of the 14th century just outside the Frysztacka town gate and the ford across the Bobrówka. We cross the bridge over the Bobrówka and the railway line and then turn left into ul. Czarny Chodnik. We walk by the railway tracks, passing first a car park and then the park behind Holy Trinity church which until 1883 was a cemetery where victims of the plague and many worthy Cieszyn citizens (including Fr. Leopold Szersznik) were buried. We arrive at the PKS railway station where our walk finishes.