7. The water walk
THE ROUTE IS MARKED IN GREEN (map no. 7):
Mnisztwo centre – ul. gen. J. Hallera – Cieszyn town boundary – Puńców – track to railway lines – Cieszyn town boundary – path through a field – ul. Gospodarska – ul. Ustrońska – ul. Wiślańska – ul. Braci Miłosiernych – ul. Mleczna– Barabosz Hill – ul. Kątowa – Głuszkowy – road parallel to ul. Graniczna (DK-1) – ul. Zamarska – ul. Stawowa – Ul. K. Brodzińskiego (link to yellow walk).
Length of walk – 8.5 km.
Hiking boots or Wellington boots should be worn on the section from Puńców to ul. Gospodarcza where the river Bobrówka has to be forded. The section can be avoided by taking a detour along ul. Słowicza and ul. Ustrońska.
Our walk begins in the centre of Mnisztwo, easily accessible either from the railway or bus station. Bus routes 4, 20, 21, 22, 30, 32 and 50 all go to Mnisztwo. The blue signs of the Estates Walk also run along here. You can read about sights of interest in Mnisztwo in part 6. We go along ul. gen. J. Hallera in a south-easterly direction. On our left are gullies covered with dry ground woodland (fig. 106). They are the result of erosion caused by rainwater running into the Bobrówka. We reach a point with a fine panorama of the Zamarski, Kamieniec, Krasna, Gumna and Chełm uplands. We reach the boundary between Cieszyn and the village of Puńców (Goleszów Commune). On our left is a view of Tuł and Wróżna. After about 150 m we reach a dirt track leading off to the left (before the first building, which has a wall around it made of red brick with wrought iron railings. We go down the road towards the Bobrówka valley. On the left we pass a gully with dry ground woodland and dense ground cover. The following flowers grow here; the protected oxlip (fig. 39), sweet wood-ruff and snowdrops (fig. 53), Suffolk lungwort, tuberous comfrey, spring pea (fig. 56), lesser celandine (fig. 40), yellow star-of-Bethlehem (fig. 41), bird-in-a-bush, Solomon’s seal, toothwort (fig. 75), wood anemone, ramsons (fig. 47), lords-and-ladies (figs. 52 and 78). The ground cover is particularly attractive in the spring when the colours change successively as different species come into flower.
After about 400 m we are within Cieszyn town boundaries again. We pass an isolated house, ul. Słowicza no. 44 (left) and cross the Cieszyn – Goleszów railway tracks. We go along a rough track across a field for a short while then turn left and walk along a clearly defined path to reach the Bobrówka (fig. 107). If you feel up to it you can go upstream to see probably the most attractive part of the river. The Bobrówka meanders, washing away the slopes of Strzelbin hill, whose slopes are quite steep here. Deep pools, inhabited by chub and trout, form in its meanders. After crossing the river we turn left into ul. Gospodarska. (Crossing the river requires a certain athleticism and appropriate footwear, the safest would be Wellington boots or it is possible to cross it barefoot).
We are now in Gułdowy. From the Bobrówka ul. Gospodarska is a dirt track. A magnificent two-hundred-and-fifty-year-old oak tree grows by the first property, no. 72. The ride rises a little and when we reach house no. 24 we can enjoy a view of Mnisztwo and the Podgórze Estate.
Leaving the ridge, we walk along a tarmac road. On the right is the Strzelbin hill with visible remains of the former parade ground for units stationed in Cieszyn. To the left is the deep valley of the Kraśnianka stream, which flows into the Bobrówka at this point. Two old, dying oak trees and an enormous hawthorn (potentially a nature monument) grow on the hillside by the stream. Soon after the two Gułdowy ponds hove into view and the clubhouse of the Cieszyn branch of the Polish Angling Association, who maintain the ponds. Three oak trees registered as nature monuments (dimensions; girth 420 cm/height 25 m, girth 353 cm/height 22 m and girth 251 cm/ height 20 m) grow in a row close by the clubhouse. We turn right into ul. Ustrońska. We come across further magnificent trees growing on either side of the road; oaks, one of them a nature monument with dimensions of 347 cm girth and 23 m height, small-leaved lime, ash and false acacia. We bear right up the hill along ul. Wiślańska, and come across a group of eleven stately horse chestnuts.
We turn left into ul. Braci Miłosiernych after the first building. Opposite us is a beautiful avenue of splendid oak and ash trees. The avenue leads to Bielowiec Woods known for their gullies and the hunting that used to take place here. The president of the Republic of Poland, Ignacy Mościcki hunted in these woods. Beyond the first house we turn left and then right soon after. From here can be seen the Kraśnianka valley, the Catholic church in Krasna (in the cemetery is the common grave of insurrectionists from the Silesian Uprising of 1939) and the two Polish Angling Association ponds. We continue downhill to the buildings on the left. There is a small spring by no. 33. We go towards the valley, passing a group of mature trees; three oaks and an ash. We cross the Bielowiec, which flows into the Kraśnianka at this point. We walk along the Kraśnianka and the pond on the far side of it. When we reach ul. Mleczna we turn right. From this point onwards we shall be walking by the Kraśnianka (figs. 108, 109, 110), sometimes on the left of the street and sometimes on the right. Hill 324, the continuation of Gułdowy, can be seen on the right. Evidence of a Neolithic settlement dating from before 1,500 BC (the Lengyel culture) and a settlement from the Halstadt period from the 6th century BC (the Lusation culture) were discovered during archeological digs in the sand mine on hill 324. Many examples of flint tools and pottery were found, which will be exhibited in the Museum of Cieszyn Silesia.
We turn right, then left then right again, passing house no. 12. We are in Krasna, one of the oldest villages around Cieszyn. It existed as early as 1284. In 1610 the Prince of Cieszyn, Adam Wacław, granted it to the Dominicans in exchange for the gardens they had lost in Cieszyn. Krasna had belonged to the Komora Cieszyńska since 1789. For some time siderite (iron ore) was mined here for use in the iron works in Ustroń. Two cemetery chapels were built here at the beginning of the 20th. One was Catholic – Christ’s Sacred Heart, today the parish church (fig. 111) and the other Lutheran. At the beginning of the Nazi occupation on 22 September 1939 the execution of Silesian insurrectionists took place here. Nazi troops executed the insurrectionists on Piaskownik hill, in Olszyna. In 1945, after the war, their remains were transferred to the Catholic cemetery. A plaque was put up on the site of the graves with the inscription, „Here lie the remains of 12 Silesian insurrectionists shot in September 1939 on Piaskownik and buried again after World War II. Macierz Ziemi Cieszyńskiej. A gift from CELMA Power Tools”. The picturesque village became part of Cieszyn in 1973. The biggest employer in Krasna is the car service centre built in 1984.
We continue to go slightly uphill along ul. Mleczna. During the spring we can enjoy the sight of wood anemone, Suffolk lungwort (fig. 42), the protected oxlip (fig. 39), lesser celandine (fig. 40) and marsh marigold in flower in meadows by the Kraśnianka. The buildings around here are contemporary or date from the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century. We are surrounded by the beauty of the landscape, the bubbling of the stream and peace and quiet. We turn left between no. 52 and a group of trees. We walk uphill along a dirt track until we reach the top of the hill called Barabosz (320 m above sea level). In the foreground we can see the buildings of Krasna and the car service centre and the Lutheran church and in the distance the peaks of the Silesian-Moravian Beskid Mountains; Kozubová, Ostrý, Javorový, Velký Lipový, Ropice, Godula, Travný, Lysá hora. If we turn to the east we can admire the panorama of the Cieszyn Silesian Beskid Mountains with Czantoria, Jasieniowa, Tuł, and Ostrý.
From the top of Barabosz we descend towards the first buildings. Then the track starts to rise until it reaches the ridge which ul. Bielska runs along. We come to ul. Bielska by house no. 226. About 100 m further on is the Cieszyn Barabosz PKS coach stop. We cross ul. Bielska and enter ul. Kątowa. The road runs downhill towards the Boguniówka. We have come to the hamlet of Głuszkowy. After passing house no. 6 we begin to walk along a road finished with concrete slabs. It is the old access road for when route DK-1 was under construction. On the left is an outcrop of Cieszyn schist. We continue downhill. The concrete-slab road finishes and we gradually climb the hill, from where there is a fine view of the Podgórze Estate, the Lutheran church and Cieślarówka with the television mast. We walk along a grass track towards the Boguniówka valley, which can be seen here, and the sluice-gate and bridge over the river under the newly built ul. Graniczna (routes DK-1/E75).
We cross the bridge over the Boguniówka and start going uphill towards ul. Zamarska. To our left is a small stream, one of the Boguniówka’s feeders, which flows along the bottom of a deep gulley, covered with dry ground woodland. We reach the ridge separating the Boguniówka valley – and the Sarkandrowiec valley and ul. Zamarska by the road bridge over ul. Graniczna (National Route 1). We join the yellow walk, and turn left. Level with the Złocień allotments the yellow signs go off to the right. To our left is the municipal water works (fig. 112) and to our right hill 358. We continue to go downhill towards the Bobrówka valley. Sporadically on either side are houses surrounded by orchards and gardens. Opposite no. 48 is 200-year-old oak tree. From here there is a fine view of Cieszyn and the Beskid Mountains (fig. 113). We can also see the Podgórze and Bobrek Zachód Estates, and the Elektrometal office block, but it is the silhouette of the Lutheran church which dominates the horizon. The road curves to the left, to the right and again to the left. We are descending all the time. Once again we see allotments on our right, this time the Zgoda allotments. We arrive at ul. Stawowa opposite the FACH works. Here we turn right and pass the high building of the Elektrometal mining telemechanics works. Next to it is the Cieszyn Stawowa MPK and PKS bus and coach stop. We cross the road just after the bus stop and turn left into ul. K. Brodzińskiego. We are in a residential area. After a short while we join up with the signs of the yellow route which accompany us to ul. T. Kościuszki. Here the green route finishes and we continue our walk to the railway station along with the yellow and black signs.