Far, far away... well, not that far after all, almost in the middle of Europe, in south-estern Poland, there's a Stone Town. As the legend goes, once upon the time the town was a normal, bustling living place. But its inhabitants were involved in all kinds of evil and the whole town was turned to stone.
Tour of the town starts, where else, in its Town Hall. It is situated on a river flowing in a deep gorge. The legend has it, that if the waters of the river, which by the way is called "White River", raise high enough to cover the rock called Town Hall, the spell will be undone and the town will be back to life. Looking down from the "Town Hall" cliff, it doesn't look very likely. But who said that legends are realistic?
Stone Town - view from 'Town Hall' cliff
Entering the main part of the Stone Town, we come upon two rocks called Lower and Upper Fortress. It takes some imagination, but one can see how well fortified the town was.
Stone Town - Lower and Upper Fortress
Further along the trail we can see an Eagle (at the right angle it does look like an sitting eagle), a Badger (I wouldn't guess), Hell Entrance (a unique rock in the complex - one with reddish coating) and more - a total of 14 fantastically shaped rocks.
Stone Town - "Eagle" rock
Stone Town - "Badger" rock
Stone Town - Hell Entrance
My favorite however was "a Liar". The rock looks like... anything you can imagine and so tourists always argue what it actually is. This dilemma will not be solved until the Town Hall gets washed by White River and all rocks come back to life. Who know what that would became?
Stone Town - "Liar" rock
There's a marked trail, stretching some 2km, so an easy stroll. The terrain is not flat, we descend into deep gorges only to ascend a steep slope to see another rock. 2/3 thru the trail, there's a shortcut leading back to the parking. My party however didn't cheat on shortcuts and we walked the whole trail. Our reward was a gorge with a waterfall called "the Witch". It's not clear whether its the witch who turned the town into stone. If so, then who turned the witch into waterfall? This mystery remains unsolved.
Stone Town - path leading to a waterfall
Stone Town - the waterfall
The whole trail - return - took us some two hours. It was a cold and cloudy November day. Perhaps the light was not that great, but still it worth visiting. On our way home we came accross Snufkin's House (remember the novel "the Moomins"?). Apparently it is his winter location, as everyone knows that in autumn Snufkin leaves the Moomins' valley (Finland?) and goes south.
Snufkin's House
