Top 20 Natural Monuments around Szczecin

a group of lakes located in the Niemierzyńska Valley

The park is a place for walks, but also a stage for art – for several years, during the summer season, various concerts are held here on Saturdays and Sundays, workshops for children are conducted, or dance parties. Over nine thousand roses of 99 varieties have been planted in the garden, and other valuable plant species grow here as well.

spectacular installation by a legendary Polish artist

A former chalk and marl mine operated by the nearby "Stern" Portland cement factory, founded in 1862 and owned by the Toepffer family. In 1925, a sudden flood of groundwater through a layer of permeable sand led to the quarry's opening. The quarry quickly filled with water. People were immediately evacuated. The quarry was flooded. Emerald Lake was created, which owes its color and name to the high calcium carbonate content in the water and the reflection of light from the chalk bed. In good weather, railway wagons and even workers' tools can still be seen at the bottom of the lake. A concrete bridge, part of the railway track used to transport chalk output to the nearby cement plant, still stands near the lake today.

The Groński boulder is an erratic boulder: a colossus. It has been a natural monument since 1956. And who was Groński? Stanisław Groński was a Polish mountaineer and a pioneer of tourism in the Szczecin region, as you will learn from the information placed on the boulder itself. Mr. Groński died a tragic death during an expedition to Mont Blanc in 1957.

The Heart Boulder, also known as the Mill Stone, is an erratic. Made of granite, its shape resembles a heart. It is entered in the register of natural monuments. It is also colossal in terms of size: impressive dimensions: circumference 14.5 m, and length over 4 m.

Groński's boulder was protected as a natural monument in 1956. Previously, it was called the Aleksander Świętochowski Stone or Bolkowy Głaz, in honour of Bolesław Krzywousty. The boulder is 1235 cm in circumference, 450 cm long and about 150 cm high. It also has a hole for placing an explosive charge. In 1959, a plaque was placed on the boulder with the inscription "In memory of Stanisław Groński, a leading Polish mountaineer, a pioneer of tourism in the Szczecin Region. He died in the Mount Blanc massif in August 1957." Stanisław Groński was a very colourful character. He was passionate about the mountains, which was partly due to his origins. He was the son of a Tatra juhas. He went on many expeditions to the Alps and the Atlas Mountains in Morocco. During World War II, he supported partisans from the Polish Underground State. Later, fate brought him to Szczecin. He settled there with his family. Even though he worked for the Polish State Railways, he was completely absorbed by local studies. He became an expert and a bard of Western Pomerania. He never forgot about the mountains, and they never forgot about him. He died in 1957 while traversing Mont Blanc. The boulder bearing his name in the Bukowa Forest is not the only one. His memory was also honored with symbolic plaques in the Julian Alps, at the Tatra Symbolic Cemetery near Osterwa and at the cemetery in Chamonix.

These are the remains of a former grain mill, the history of which dates back over 700 years. The first owners were the Cistercians from Kołbacz (who else ;). Subsequent owners were: the Swedes - during the Thirty Years' War they converted the mill into a gunpowder mill - which was destroyed by fire, Hans Blaurock and his heirs in the 12th - 19th century (again as a grain mill), Friedrich Jaeckel from 1838 who launched the production of paper and bags for the nearby Stern cement plant, and finally Johannes Burmeister - in 1880 he founded a restaurant here which attracted crowds of tourists and this place became the main tourist center in the forest. The history of this place ended abruptly in 1944 when, as a result of war operations, part of the buildings were destroyed and then the whole thing gradually fell into disrepair until it reached its current state, i.e. a few remains in the form of: stairs, the dam embankment and a rotting gate, an overgrown mill pond and foundations and basement vaults.