Who the Walloons were and where they came to the Sudetes from

In the Izera Mountains and the Karkonosze, the name Walloons was given to wandering prospectors searching for gold, silver and gemstones, who according to tradition were said to have come from what is now the borderland of Belgium, France and Germany. According to this tradition, in the mid-12th century they set out towards Transylvania at the invitation of the Hungarian king, and from there, through the Harz Mountains and the Ore Mountains, eventually reached the Western Sudetes. Specific dates confirm their presence in the region: in 1148 Laurentius Angelus is said to have discovered iron ore deposits in Kowary, in 1156 deposits of lead and copper were recorded in Miedzianka, and in 1158 Duke Bolesław the Curly sent twelve subjects into the mountains, who founded a settlement called Żelazna Góra.

The name "Walloons" stuck to all the wandering mineral prospectors active in the Sudetes from the Middle Ages through to the 16th and 17th centuries, regardless of where the individuals concerned actually came from. In the second half of the 14th century, Emperor Charles IV called on his subjects to search for gold and gemstones in the Western Sudetes, reserving a share of any finds for himself - prospecting carried out without permission could be punished by having one's eyes burned out.

What they were looking for in the Izera Mountains and the Karkonosze

The Walloons were interested above all in gold, silver and gemstones: sapphires, garnets, tourmalines and amethysts, as well as minerals useful for glass production. They were particularly active around the Biała Dolina (White Valley), the valleys of the Bielena, Jagnięty, Złoty and Szafirowy streams, the area around Wieczorny Zamek, and the Chojnik Valley. One important point on their routes was Izerska Łąka on the upper Izera, where in 1764 a printed guidebook by Christian Gottlieb Lehmann described "quite blue gemstones, good ore, pure gold and silver" as lying there. Lehmann's text, based on material collected by his grandfather, a pastor from Scheibenberg, also contained cryptic clues referring to specific points in the landscape, the mountain Bukowiec, the Izera river and the so-called Zamek Opustoszony (Deserted Castle), where treasures were said to lie. Lehmann's information about the presence of sapphires, garnets and tourmalines in this area was later confirmed by 19th-century mineralogical research.

At the end of the 16th century, prospecting at Izerska Łąka was reportedly carried out by the personal physician of Emperor Rudolf II, Anselmus Boetius de Boot, who published the work "History of Precious Stones" in 1609. The traditions associated with this place are said to have later inspired the writer Gerhart Hauptmann. Rudolf II himself, after moving his court to Prague in 1583, significantly increased demand for minerals from the region, and in 1595 he issued a document granting rights to search for pearls.

Walloon signs carved into rocks

Moving through poorly known terrain, the Walloons left themselves and later prospectors directional signs carved into trees, rocks and boulders: stars, sun and moon symbols, crosses, pickaxes, hammers, arrows and letters. Some researchers regard these as the first precursors of trail markings in the mountains, although - unlike today's tourist signs - they were meant to serve only the initiated, not chance wanderers.

An example of such a place is Waloński Kamień (Walloon Stone) in Przesieka, a group of granite rocks at the foot of the Płonik hill. On one of the rocks two joined weathering pits can be seen, which, after the rock block toppled over, ended up on its side and resemble the silhouette of a human figure in shape - hence the old German name Mannstein. The rock appeared as an important landmark in the 15th-century Walloon Books, which is why the carvings on its surface are attributed to the gold and gemstone prospectors once active here. Today such signs can be difficult to read with certainty: some of them may only date from later centuries, once the theme of Walloon prospectors had become a popular subject of local tales.

The Walloon Books and the question of their reliability

The primary source of knowledge about the Walloons' activity is the so-called Walloon Books, manuscripts with instructions on where and how to look for ore and gemstones. The most important include the Walloon Book of Trutnov from 1466 and the Walloon Book attributed to Antonius de Medici from 1456, preserved in a copy from 1470. They contained coded notes and instructions written in Latin, German and Czech, accessible only to the initiated - hence the difficulty today in reliably interpreting many of the clues they contain.

This is precisely where the most important dividing line in this story runs: between what is documented and what later grew up as legend. It is documented that wandering mineral prospectors were indeed active in the Western Sudetes from the 12th to the 17th century, that they left behind books with genuine field clues, and that their searches actually led to the discovery of iron, copper, arsenic and quartz ores, in turn setting off the development of mining and glassmaking in the region. What remains legend, however, is the image of mountains full of "immeasurable deposits of gold" - gold really does occur in the Western Sudetes, but in quantities too small for industrial extraction to be worthwhile today. Equally a legend rather than an eyewitness account is the tale warning the curious against spying on the Walloons at work: a black billy goat was said to leap out of the forest, snatch up the onlooker onto its back and carry him off into the unknown. How much of this whole tradition is fact recorded in the books, and how much is colourful embellishment added by successive generations of guides and writers, cannot be resolved with certainty today, and the region's own researchers admit as much openly.

Present-day traces of the Walloons

The memory of the Walloon prospectors is kept alive today by, among others, the Sudeckie Bractwo Walońskie (Sudetes Walloon Brotherhood), and in Szklarska Poręba there is a Mineralogical Museum presenting the history of mineral mining in the region. In Lwówek Śląski, an event called "Agatowe Lato" (Agate Summer) is held every summer, referring to the local tradition of agate hunting. A popular, well-visited trace of the old mining industry is also the Sztolnie Kowarskie (Kowary Adits) in Kowary, where one of the first documented mining operations in the region began.

What remains of the Walloons in the landscape today are mainly place names and individual rocks bearing signs, such as the aforementioned Waloński Kamień in Przesieka. It is worth remembering that reading such carvings is still, to a large extent, interpretive work, connecting fragments recorded in the books with what can actually be seen on the rock today, after several hundred years of weathering and after the theme of the Walloon prospectors itself became part of local legend.