Parkowe Nature Reserve

The Parkowe reserve is a forest-landscape reserve in the Kraków-Częstochowa Upland, near Złoty Potok and Siedlec in the municipality of Janów. It protects hills with fragments of the Wiercica valley, rock outcrops and old woodland, and lies within the Eagles' Nests Landscape Park.

How the reserve came about

The reserve was established on 3 September 1957, and in 1927 a reserve district of 105 ha already existed here. The beginnings of protection go back to 1907, when Count Raczyński limited the felling of the forest. After an enlargement in 2011 the reserve covers 234.13 ha and comes under the Złoty Potok Forest District. The area is also part of the Natura 2000 site Złotopotocka Refuge.

In 1852-1858 the estate belonged to General Wincenty Krasiński, father of the poet Zygmunt, to whom the Zygmunt Krasiński Regional Museum in Złoty Potok is devoted. In 1881 the country's first trout farm was set up here, and on a limestone hill within the reserve there was a stronghold in the 8th century.

Rocks, springs and forest

The reserve is notable for its rock outcrops: the Devil's Bridges (Diabelskie Mosty), the Rock with a Cross and Twardowski's Gate, as well as caves and shelters, among them the Bear Cave. In the eastern part the Wiercica river rises from two springs, Elizabeth's Spring and Zygmunt's Spring; there is also the Spring of Fulfilled Dreams and the historic Kołaczew Mill.

The forests form an ash-alder carr, oak-hornbeam woodland, several types of beech wood and mixed pine woods. Red helleborine, ramsons, martagon lily and leafless bird's-nest orchid grow here, and the animals living here include the Alpine planarian, the Carpathian spring snail, the smooth snake and the brown trout.

The area

Right next door, to the south-west, lies the Ostrężnik reserve, and less than two kilometres from here stands Ostrężnik Castle. In Złoty Potok it is worth visiting the Raczyński Palace.

Practical information

• Location: Złoty Potok and Siedlec, Janów municipality, Częstochowa County.
• The rules of protection of a nature reserve apply; check the rules of movement in the area with the Złoty Potok Forest District or the Complex of Landscape Parks of the Silesian Voivodeship.