4. The nature reserves walk
THE ROUTE IS MARKED IN GREEN (map no. 4):
PKS Bus Station – ul. W. Korfantego – ul. Bobrecka – ul. Garncarska – Górny Rynek – ul. Wyższa Brama – pl. Wolności – ul. 3 Maja – ul. K. Miarki – Lasek Miejski nad Puńcówką nature reserve – avenue by the Młynówka – al. J. Łyska – road to the OLZA campsite – track between the Olza and the canal – weir no. 3 on the Olza – Lasek Miejski nad Olzą nature reserve – ul. Łowiecka – ul. S. Żeromskiego – ul. W. Reymonta – al. J. Łyska – ul. Dębowa – ul. Spacerowa – ul. Puńcowska – ul. ks. R. Tomanka – ul. bp. F. Śniegonia – ul. gen. J. Hallera – ul. Z. Kossak-Szatkowskiej – ul. Na Wzgórzu – ul. Zaleskiego – ul. Spokojna – ul. Dworkowa – ul. Bielska – ul. J. Cienciały – ul. Przechodnia – ul. I. Paderewskiego – ul. Bielska – ul. K. Brodzińskiego – Czarny Chodnik (path by the Bobrówka) – ul. Bobrecka – ul. F. Hajduka – PKP Railway Station.
Length of walk – 10 km. The section of the walk from weir no. 3 to ul. Łowiecka is possible only in organised groups with a registered tourist guide. This section can be avoided by taking a detour along Aleja Łyska.
We set off to the right along ul. W. Korfantego from in front of the PKS bus station, then left again into ul. Bobrecka at the traffic lights. We walk uphill along first along ul. Bobrecka and then ul. Garncarska. Well above the level of the road on the left by Nursery no. 8 is a nature monument, an oak tree with a girth of 510 cm and a height of 25 m. Soon after, on our left, we come to a small square with the court – built in 1905 – and the prison behind it (described in Walk 1). In the Middle Ages, Cieszyn’s prison and the hangman’s lodgings were originally located in the Upper Town Gate (Wyższa Brama). Later documents mention a torture chamber and hangman’s lodgings in ul. Katowna (today ul. J. Kiedronia). The Cieszyn hangman was ‘loaned out’ to other towns, e.g. Skoczów, Strumień and Jabłonków (now Jablunkov) when their magistrates needed him. A later prison built in ul. Katowicka burned down in the fire of 1789. The hangman’s house, rebuilt after the fire, stood until 1966.
We continue on our way to Górny Rynek, where the St. Charles Borromeo convent and residential care and nursing home stands to the left of the square (described in walk 1.). We turn left into ul. Wyższa Brama and soon after right into plac Wolności. We pass Nicholas Copernicus High School and Antoni Osuchowski High School (descriptions in walk no. 1). There is a plaque on the latter school building commemorating the return of the poet Słowacki’s remains from Paris to Kraków. Growing by Copernicus High School is a silver maple (nature monument) with a girth of 350 cm and a height of 23 m. We continue to ul. 3 Maja. On the right we pass a town house richly decorated in Art Nouveau style and beyond it an amphitheatre. Here we turn left by a magnificent Art Nouveau house into ul. K. Miarki, a residential area. Soon after we come to the junction of ul. Miarki, ul. H. Sienkiewicza, ul. Ogrodowa, ul. J. I. Kraszewskiego (fig. 72). On the corner of ul. J. I. Kraszewskiego and ul. Ogrodowa it is worth taking a look at a honey locust (fig. 73), a tree which is rarely come across in Poland. Other specimens grow in front of the A. Mickiewicz theatre, in the Pod Wałką Park and in the hospital grounds. It has small, pinnate leaves; long, dark-brown thorns (up to 8 cm) and unusual fruit; long, flattened, curved pods (up to 40 cm long). We turn right by the children’s home. In its grounds is a 100-year-old purple beech, registered as a nature monument, with a girth of 259 cm and a height of 17 m. The slightly less intensive colour of its leaves suggests that it was probably grown from seed. We have arrived at a place which is often visited by local people; the floral nature reserve, Lasek Miejski nad Puńcówką. It was established in 1961 for the preservation and protection of Hacquetia epipactis, a flower which grows in the dry ground woodland here, and has an area of 6.96 ha. We pass beeches and horse chestnuts planted along the fence and come to the monument of Mieszko I (fig. 74), Prince of Cieszyn which stands at the top of a steep slope. The bronze monument by Jan Raszka, professor of the Academy of Commerce, Kraków was put up in 1933. A monument of Emperor Franz Joseph I stood in this spot from 1908. During the Second World War the statue was removed from its plinth by the Germans and after the war a plaque was put up with the inscription; To the fighters for freedom and democracy who fell in the fight with Nazism. Polish Workers’ Party. The plaque can still be seen behind the statue of the prince.
From the top of the slope we can see the Freedom Bridge on the River Olza and directly ahead in the distance the railway station in Český Těąín. In the foreground on both sides of ul. 3 Maja is the Celma S A power tools works. In 1921 Karol Rusz founded a factory producing electric motors on the site of a woodyard. In 1926 the factory was bought by Brown-Bovery of Warsaw, a Polish electrical company. Seven years later the factory had become part of the Rohn-Zieliński electrical-mechanical firm. After the war the works was nationalised and the in 1950s was renamed the M-2 Electrical Motors Works. From 1961 it took on the name Celma. Today high quality medium power electrical motors are manufactured here. The area around the monument was established as a park with paths crossing the slope and steps leading down to the path running by the Młynówka.
From the monument we go south by the fence of the children’s home. We are in woodland dominated by ash, horse chestnut, sycamore and small-leaved lime. There are a few Scots pine, Weymouth pine (a native of North America with long, flexible needles arranged in bundles of five), oak, alder, white willow and European larch. Elder is the most common bush, but you may also see hawthorn, snowberry or jasmine. Beyond the customs house there is a small area of the reserve by ul. J. I. Kraszewskiego. There are examples of wych elm, smooth-leaved elm, with red currant and gooseberry bushes growing among them. In the undergrowth, wood anemone and lesser celandine bloom abundantly in the spring (fig. 40), slightly later ramsons (fig. 47) and Solomon’s seal. It is also possible to come across the protected ivy (fig. 48) sometimes called „Polish liana”. Another protected species growing here is asarabacca (fig. 46). We pass a small square with benches, rather neglected and beginning to become overgrown. The path runs by the boundary fence of the Vocational and Technical College no. 1. The buildings were built as barracks by the Austrian army at the end of the 19th century. From 1922 the Agricultural College – later transferred to Olsztyn in 1950 – was based here. In the brushwood there is also dogwood, hazel, spindle tree, hawthorn and the protected guelder rose (fig. 59 and 60), and in the undergrowth; yellow star-of-Bethlehem (fig. 41), Suffolk lungwort (fig. 42), dog’s mercury (fig. 54), common dog-violet and the showy hollowroot (mauvish-red – more seldom white – flowers) and tuberous comfrey (pale yellow flowers).
As we continue we notice fine specimens of hornbeam and field maple among the Norway maple, elm and lime. The path leads to a deep gully spanned by a footbridge. In spring and autumn this gully fills up after heavy downfalls. On the slopes of the gully are the only localities of toothwort (fig. 43) which blooms in the early spring with purple flowers. At the mouth of the gully there are wood anemones, which bloom in the spring. After crossing the bridge we traverse the slope. By the path in the spring can be seen a rare parasitic chlorophyll-lacking plant; toothwort (fig. 75). On the right is lime-hornbeam dry ground woodland. In early spring snowdrops (fig. 53) – a protected species here – and oxlip (fig. 39) can be seen flowering here. One of the first flowers to bloom here in the spring is the yellow Hacquetia epipactis whose attractive modified pale-green bracts are often mistaken for petals (fig. 55). Hacquetia epipactis only flowers in the parts of the reserve where the woodland is most similar to natural woodland (fig. 76). Also flowering here are spring pea (fig. 56), rue-leaved Isopyrum (fig. 77) and yellow archangel. An observant visitor will also find lords-and-ladies (fig. 52 and 78), an unusual plant rarely seen in Poland, and a delicate grass, mountain melick.
We turn to the right and go down a steep path towards the Młynówka. On the ground it is easy to spot fragments of the brittle rock from which the hillside is constructed. It is Cieszyn schist, a component of Carpathian Flysch. We turn left into a path running by the canal all the way to the river Puńcówka (fig. 79). On the banks of the river is a smallish, delicate flower with greenish-yellow flowers giving off a musk-like perfume; maschotel. On the other side of the canal are several sports facilities; a football pitch and running track with a stand, an open-air swimming pool and a sports hall. Previously the facilities were used by members of the Piast Sports Club, which was founded in 1910 but no longer exists. Cieszyn’s first swimming pool was built in 1886 and the present one in 1952.
We cross the river and turn left after the bridge. We are in the Pod Wałką Park (fig. 80 and 81). On the other side of al. J. Łyska is a monument commemorating the 24 people executed by the Nazis on 20 March 1942. After the denunciation of the Cieszyn branch of the ZWZ (League of Armed Resistance), the Germans arrested several hundred people and organised a show execution of leaders of the resistance from all around Cieszyn Silesia. The path runs along by the Puńcówka. On the other side of the river is the Łęg nad Puńcówką ecological site of area 1.1 ha, established by a resolution of the Town Council on 26 October 1995 and 23 January 2003. We reach al. J. Łyska and can admire two impressive limes (nature monuments), one a large-leaved lime with a girth of 380 cm and a height of 20 m and an interesting gnarled trunk; and a small-leaved lime with a girth of 398 cm and height of 18 m.
We cross al. J. Łyska and turn into the track leading to the Olza camp site. On the corner is a horse chestnut nature monument with a girth of 399 cm and a height of 18 m. We continue by the boating lake created by damming the western branch of the Młynówka (fig. 82). Along this track, which after passing the camp site leads to weir III on the River Olza, is a group of 13 nature monuments. We can admire; 3 pedunculate oaks (281-348 cm/ 20- 21 m), 3 wych elms (307-405 cm/ 25-28 m), 3 hornbeams (213-248 cm/ 17-18 m), a false acacia (350 cm/ 22 m), a horse chestnut (403 cm/ 18 m), a sycamore (327 cm/ 20 m) and a small-leaved lime (310 cm/ 28 m). On the other side of the Młynówka is the Pod Wałką sports ground. We continue to weir III on the Olza (fig. 83) and onto the sluice-gate through which the two branches of the Młynówka are fed. The eastern branch used to power the old watermill, where a small electricity generator was built in 1862 and used until 1920. By the mill there was also a sawmill and a rolling-mill (rolling-mill is walcownia in Polish, explaining the name of this area; pod Wałką).
We cross onto the other side of the Młynówka. We are in the Lasek Miejski nad Olzą floral nature reserve which was established in 1961 and has an area of 3.26 ha. This reserve has a wider range of plant species than the Lasek Miejski nad Puńcówką. Here we may find; cleavers (typical for dry ground woodland), the protected lily of the valley, sweet wood-ruff and liverwort (fig. 57) – beautiful when it blooms in early spring. Also growing here are: oral-root bittercress, the rose-blooming honesty (fig. 84), known in Polish as Judas’ silver pennies owing to its characteristic fruit; large oval siliques with kidney-shaped seeds, examples of the protected ivy, touch-me-not – a Himalayan native with purple flowers, Hacquetia epipactis (fig. 55), and lords-and-ladies in great abundance (fig. 52 and 78). This reserve is less frequently visited by Cieszyn people, which explains why only two rather faint paths run through it. Walking along one of the two paths we approach a steep slope with numerous outcrops of Carpathian Flysch. It is only possible to cross the sluice gate by the weir and the nature reserve if you are part of a group under the supervision of a qualified tourist guide. We climb some temporary steps and come to the track behind the house at ul. Łowiecka 50. We turn right and continue along the track behind the houses parallel to the slope for about 200 m until we reach ul. Łowiecka. We turn left and walk through a residential area. We come to a road without a name at right-angles to ul. Łowiecka which we turn right into, and then left into ul. S. Żeromskiego. Here we walk along passing houses with well-kept gardens on both sides.
We are in Błogocice, formerly a village and incorporated into Cieszyn in 1922. In 1447 a grange owned by the Cieszyn princes stood here. Błogocice has had numerous owners. At the turn of the 16th century the Sobeks occupied the mansion. Vodka was distilled below the mansion. Many Cieszyn people would visit Błogocice to sample the vodka, even though the punishment for so doing was to have one’s nose and ears cut off. The distilling tradition was maintained by a Cieszyn merchant, Franciszek Warlinger, who founded a distillery of high quality vodka here in 1785. In 1797 Błogocice was incorporated into the Komora Cieszyńska. Frequent flooding by the Olza meant that safety measures were required, which resulted in the building of the weir on the Olza and the rerouting of the Młynówka, which was furnished with a water mill, saw-mill and rolling-mill. A road was built here in the 19th century (the present al. J. Łyska), which was soon extended to Ustroń and Třinec. We continue to the painstakingly renovated former grange (known locally as the zameczek or little castle), whose last owners were the Stonawski family (fig. 85). In the first half of the 16th century the owners of Błogocice were the Mitmayer family. It was most probably them who built a modest residence on a slight rise above the Puńcówka, with a tower on which Renaissance features can still be seen. Since the time of the Mitmayers until 1906 Błogocice passed through the hands of many noble families. They carried out various changes to the architecture of the mansion and its surroundings. The last modification, designed by Robert Lewak, and carried out in 1909, obliterated its historical architectural features. The bay window with wooden balustrade and carved shutters facing the street is worth looking at. The Latin inscription; HOS MORUM FLORES SI CARPSERIS UT ROSA FLORES, means, more or less, „The customs of flowers are such that they wither when the rose blooms.” The mansion and boundary wall have shingled roofs.
Below the mansion on the corner of ul. W. Reymonta and ul. S. Żeromskiego is a late-Baroque statue of St. John Nepomuk dating from 1729 on a plinth. It has Latin inscriptions with chronograms (fig. 86). Each inscription contains a date concealed within a chronogram. This date is 1729, the year John Nepomuk was canonised by Pope Benedict XIII and the year Jan Antoni de Lechniti von Fridenburg had the statue made. The sculpture is characterised by great artistry and masterly technique. It is a great pity that the identity of the sculptor is unknown.
We go down towards al. J. Łyska, passing, on our left, the former vodka and liquor works, later a fruit juice factory. We turn right, with the Cieszyn Błogocice PKS coach stop on our left, and, crossing the bridge over the Puńcówka, arrive at the Pod Dębem skittle alley and bar. A splendid small-leaved lime grows here. We turn left into ul. Dębowa just by the skittle alley. On our left are allotments and we start to go uphill quite steeply. On the right we can see the border hills; from Koňský Les to Kojkovská horka and the Silesian-Moravian Beskid Mountains. We turn left into ul. Spacerowa. From the slopes we can see the hills of the Silesian-Moravian Pogórze with Mistřovický kopec. We descend the grassy track to the valley of a smallish stream, cross it and begin to go uphill on the other side towards ul. Puńcowska. We pass a newly built residential area. On our left is a television mast. We soon reach ul. Puńcowska and the blue signs of the Estates Walk.
We turn right and walk along with the Estates Walk signs to the Tysiąclecia Estate, built in the 1950s, and known popularly as the ZOR Estate. There are around fifty blocks on both sides of the road housing around 6 thousand people. On the left hand side of the road where the blocks now stand up until the First World War there was a parade ground where reservists drilled and trained. The place, which looks down over the town, was called Galgenberg in German i.e. Gallows Hill. It was here that executions were carried out, the condemned being brought here from the wayside shrine by the Bobrówka under the flyover.
We leave the blue signs, turn right into ul. ks. R. Tomanka, and then left into ul. bp. F. Śniegonia. From here we follow a footpath between the blocks, going downwards and to the right to ul. gen. J. Hallera. We turn right into it and follow it to ul. Rajska. From the terrace here above ul. gen. J. Hallera we have a fine view of Cieszyn. Below us is a field called the Cieślarówka, a ski-slope with a small button ski-lift. Below the field the old buildings of the Silesian Hospital nestle in greenery. There are many mature trees, including some exotic varieties there. A modern multi-storey building, opened for use in 1990, towers over the rest of the hospital grounds. Father Franciszek Michejda first proposed the building of a hospital in 1882, but in fact it was his political rival, Father Teodor Haase, who completed the project. The work was begun in 1888 and the hospital was opened on 14 June 1892. The hospital’s first director was the Viennese surgeon, Dr. Herman Hinterstoisser. The Lutheran parish was unable to afford the upkeep of the hospital and for this reason, in 1903, it came under the auspices of the District Government of Austrian Silesia in Opava. The hospital was well thought of by the patients, not only for the standards of care, but also for the fact that it consisted of separate buildings set in parkland. From 1922, after Poland had won its independence, the hospital was administered by the Silesian Diet in Katowice. In 1930 Dr. Jan Władysław Kubisz became its director. He was the son of Jan Kubisz, the teacher, writer and poet. At that time the Lutheran nuns from the Eben-Ezer care home in Dzięgielów took over the nursing and ancillary duties. During the Second World War the hospital treated members of the Polish underground and supplied medicine to partisan units. Around the hospital buildings are squares and flowerbeds creating interesting grounds of considerable natural significance. The grounds form one of Cieszyn’s most important parks. Many rare varieties of trees and shrubs can be found here. To mention the most important; a smooth-leaved elm (363 cm/ 22 m), three weeping purple beeches, a magnolia, an oak, a copper beech (268 cm/ 21 m), two Turkey oaks (178 cm/ 17 m and 175 cm/ 17 m), a honey locust (156 cm/ 16 m), an Eastern hemlock, Weymouth pines, southern catalpa, European white birch (190 cm/18 m), kobus magnolia, four wych elms (223 cm/20 m, 257 cm/22 m, 238 cm/22 m and 226 cm/21 m), a sycamore (127 cm/14 m), mountain ash (136 cm/10 m), two yews (fig. 87), three white poplars, an American basswood, three Japanese white larches, a white fir, two Swiss stone pines, a Japanese yew, a ginkgo (fig. 88), ash (326 cm/19 m) and a purple sycamore.
Behind the Lutheran church can be seen the Old Town and the town hall, the tower on St. Mary Magdalene’s church, the Piast Tower on the Castle Hill and beyond them the Ostrava-Karviná coalfields. On the right is the hill above the valley of the Bobrówka, a feeder of the Olza, and above the valley the two housing estates; Liburnia and Piastowskie. In Liburnia can be seen the neo-Baroque buildings of the former convent of the Grey Nuns of St. Elizabeth, now part of the Silesian Hospital. Looking further to the right is the new residential development in ul. T. Kościuszki, the Bobrek Zachód Estate, the chimney of the old brickworks and the parish church in Bobrek.
We turn right along ul. gen. J. Hallera. We pass the Janusz Korczak Primary School no. 3 and continue to the junction with ul. Z. Kossak-Szatkowskiej. On the corner of the two streets by the shop five impressive horse chestnuts grow on the little patch of ground. We turn left and go towards the Podgórze Estate, which most people know as the Banotówka Estate. We come to ul. Na Wzgórzu. It is worth going another 200 m further along ul. Z. Kossak-Szatkowskiej and stand at the edge of the hill by the car park. Probably the most beautiful view of Cieszyn and its surroundings unfolds from this point (fig. 89, 90, 91). On the left we can see the Lutheran church, the Old Town with its towers; the town hall, the churches of St. Mary Magdalene, the Holy Cross, the Holy Trinity and the Assumption of Our Lady, the former convent of the Grey Nuns of St. Elizabeth, the Liburnia and Piastowskie Estates, Pikiety Hill, the Bobrek Zachód and Bobrek Wschód Estates, the Elektrometal office block, Krasna, and Kamieniec Hill. In the foreground is the campus of the Affiliate of the University of Silesia, and further to the left the multi-storey tower of the Silesian Hospital set in parkland. We return to ul. Na Wzgórzu. The road descends steeply down towards ul. Pochyła running alongside a modern residential area, then down steps to ul. J. Zaleskiego and then down to ul. Spokojna. We turn right and then right again into ul. Dworkowa. We come to ul. Bielska, by the Lutheran cemetery. It is the second largest cemetery in Cieszyn, founded in 1887 after the cemetery by the Lutheran church was closed down. Buried here are; Andrzej Cinciała – lawyer and nationalist activist, Jan Gawlas – composer, Andrzej Hławiczka – musician and folklorist, Karol Hławiczka – musicologist and pedagogue, Paweł Hulka-Laskowski – writer and journalist, Adolf Kantor-Bolko – Polish professional boxing champion, active in the community, in hiking and sports, Helmut Kajzar – theatre director and theatrologist, Jan Kotas – lawyer and deputy of the Silesian Diet, Jan Kubisz – surgeon, Jan Łysek – poet and member of the Polish legions, Alfons Mackowski – doctor, Władysław Macura – composer, Oskar Michejda – priest and journalist, Karol Niedoba – painter, Jan Śliwka – teacher and textbook writer.
We go along the cemetery wall and then turn right into ul. J. Cienciały, which continues to run alongside the cemetery wall. We cross ul. Przechodnia and continue along a path to ul. I. Paderewskiego. Here we turn left and soon come to the first building of the Affiliate of the University of Silesia, the sports hall. We pass the lecture theatre, designed by Miastoprojekt in Cieszyn and built in 1980 by the Bielsko light engineering company. As early as 1848 Lutheran teachers put forward a proposal to open a Polish teaching college. In answer to that Father Teodor Haase founded a German teaching college in Bielsko in 1867. All later Polish initiatives were effectively quashed by Father Haase and the town’s mayor, Dr. Jan Demel. Permission to establish a Polish college was only granted in 1905 and after further efforts permission to build a Polish college outside the town. The building was erected in Bobrek in under a year. The first lectures took place in the male college in 1911. The institution functioned until 1932 when it was closed owing to the surplus of teachers. In 1937 the Pedagogical Grammar School was opened here, transformed into the State Pedagogical Grammar School after 1945 and in 1960 into a Teacher Training College. The Affiliate of the University of Silesia was opened on 15 September 1971. In a short time a lecture hall, sports hall with swimming pool, halls of residence and other buildings were put up. We continue along ul. I. Paderewskiego passing on our right the former building of the Mens College, now the Main Building.
We reach ul. Bielska and turn right. We go along by the university campus and then turn left into ul. K. Brodzińskiego level with the main university building. We go down into the Bobrówka valley crossing the railway tracks of the Cieszyn-Goleszów line. You should be careful at the level crossing here as it is sometimes difficult to see oncoming trains. Just after the level crossing we turn left into ul. Czarny Chodnik, where we meet up with the yellow signs of the Panorama Walk and the black signs of the Bobrek Walk. We walk along by the Bobrówka and soon come to ul. Bobrecka where we turn left and then right into ul. Hajduka to finish our walk at the PKP Railway Station.