Oitsowski National Park

Ojcowski National Park is the smallest of Poland’s 23 national parks with an area of 21.46 square kilometers. It is also one of the oldest natural parks, established in January 1956. It is named after the village of Oytsuv, which houses its headquarters.

Ojcowski National Park is located about 16 kilometers northeast of Krakow, in the Malopolska Voivodeship, in southern Poland. The park is characterized by karst relief forms, many caves, of which there are more than 400, and rock formations. One of the most popular of them is a 25-meter limestone column, the so-called “Mace of Hercules”. The park is home to about 5,500 species of animals, of which 4,600 species of insects, including 1,700 species of beetles and 1,075 species of butterflies, 135 species of birds and 15 species of bats that winter in park caves.

In addition to the great biological diversity, you can see the ruins of numerous castles, the Gothic medieval construction of Oitsuv and the Renaissance castle in the Sand Rock, which were part of the medieval fortification of the south of Poland, better known as the “Eagle’s Nest Path”.