Czartowska Rock

Czartowska Rock is a small post-volcanic hill 463 metres above sea level, lying in the Kaczawskie Foothills, west of the Chełmy Landscape Park, in Jawor County. It clearly stands out from the flat surrounding landscape with its steep slopes and sharply outlined summit.

A remnant of a volcano

The hill has the shape of a small, slightly bent cone, undercut on two sides by the workings of former quarries. It is built of Miocene basalts, volcanic rocks forming part of the core of a former shield volcano. The basanite that makes up the rock is fractured and forms regular columns, visible in the places once quarried, where a fragment of the volcanic vent was exposed.

Geological history

The lower parts of the slopes are covered by deposits formed by soil creep, and at the foot lie sediments left by the glacier and meltwater. At the time when the ice sheet covered the Kaczawskie Foothills, the hill was not completely submerged by ice and stuck out of it as a rocky nunatak several metres high.

Nature protection

Since 1991 Czartowska Rock has been a protected natural monument of inanimate nature. On its northern side it is covered by low vegetation and clumps of trees, among which grow protected species: the stemless carline thistle, the early purple orchid, the elder-flowered orchid, spurge laurel and the oxlip.

Practical information

• Location: Pomocne, Jawor County, west of the Chełmy Landscape Park
• Getting there: no address given; the neighbouring Chełmy Landscape Park serves as a landmark
• What to expect: a small, rocky hill with visible traces of a former quarry and protected vegetation, an area protected as a natural monument