Tag - Eliaszówka Valley
Eliaszówka Valley – a valley in the Olkusz Upland, part of the Kraków-Częstochowa Upland, stretching between the towns of Czerna and Paczółtowice. The Eliaszówka Stream, officially named Czerniówka, flows through the valley’s bottom. The stream rises on the southern slopes of Kominki Hill, at an elevation of 368 m a.s.l.
The valley’s slopes are steep, composed of gray Lower Carboniferous limestone. Karst processes have created gorges, rock outcrops, caves, and shelters in the valley. The left branch of the valley, slightly above Eliasz Spring, is the Kulenda Gorge. On the slopes of the valley are caves and shelters: the Cave under the Beeches, St. Hilarion’s Grotto, the Eaves under St. Hilarion’s Grotto, the Shelter at St. Hilarion’s Grotto, St. Onuphrius’s Grotto, and the Cave Beyond the Seven Thresholds. Several springs emerge in the valley: Elijah’s Spring, Elisha’s Spring, and St. Joseph’s Spring.
The valley is covered with forest. The valley slopes are covered with Carpathian beech, thermophilic beech, and oak-hornbeam forest, while the valley floor is covered with alder-ash riparian forest. To protect nature, the Eliaszówka Valley Nature Reserve was established in 1989, covering an area of 109.57 hectares.
The hermitage monastery of the Discalced Carmelites of St. Elijah was founded in the valley in the 17th century. Founded by Agnieszka Firlejowa, née Tenczyńska, the Voivode of Kraków, it covered an area of 80 hectares and was inaccessible to outsiders. In the 19th century, the monastery changed its character, and today, the “great enclosure” remains, scattered throughout the forest, of fragments of walls, of the hermitages where the hermits lived centuries ago, of the monumental eremitic bridge connecting the monastery hill with the village of Siedlec, which was part of the monastery’s endowment, and of fragments of the Siedlce gate.
The yellow-marked John Paul II Jurassic Valleys Trail, the green-marked Olkusz – St. Elias Spring hiking trail, and the red-marked walking trail around the Eliaszówka Valley run through the valley.
Hikes related to the tag ELIASZÓWKA VALLEY:
