Hercules' Club
An isolated rock pillar about twenty-five metres high standing alone in the valley.
Aneta Pawska — CC BY-SA 3.0 pl · Dwxn — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Dwxn — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Dwxn — CC BY-SA 4.0
A route of about a hundred and sixty kilometres between Kraków and Częstochowa, along which stand some twenty-five castles and castle ruins built by Casimir III in the fourteenth century on limestone summits. The name comes from the castles looking from a distance like eagles' nests on the rocks. It can be walked or cycled in stages, and Ojców is its southern end.
By bus from Kraków in about an hour, or half an hour by car. The usual order is to start from Ojców village, walk the valley past Hercules' Club, visit the Łokietek cave, then Pieskowa Skała castle at the northern end. The full distance is about ten kilometres — a comfortable day.
Sign in to write your review of this place.
No reviews yet — be the first.
Poland's smallest national park and the closest to Kraków, covering some twenty-one square kilometres of a narrow limestone valley north-west of the city. The landscape rests on limestone: high white cliffs, more than four hundred caves, and isolated rock pillars carved by erosion — the best known is Hercules' Club, about twenty-five metres high, standing alone in the valley. The park holds two castles of the Trail of the Eagles' Nests, a chain built by King Casimir III in the fourteenth century on rock summits to guard the Bohemian frontier. Pieskowa Skała castle is preserved and open as a museum; Ojców castle is a ruin. The name comes from the castles standing on their rocks like eagles' nests. The Łokietek cave is also open on a guided tour. The park is free to walk but the sites inside are ticketed. Access is by bus from Kraków or by car, and the trails are numbered.
An isolated rock pillar about twenty-five metres high standing alone in the valley.
Fourteenth-century castles on rock summits guarding the Bohemian frontier.
Preserved and open as a museum, unlike the ruins of Ojców castle.
North-west of Kraków, about twenty-five kilometres