The petrified city

The Petrified City - an inanimate nature reserve located on the right bank of the Biała River in the Ciężkowice Foothills .

Scattered among the mixed forest is a group of large rocks , made of coarse sandstones and Ciężkowice conglomerates , fancifully shaped as a result of erosion processes. This is called rock city . Among the rocks there are forms resembling pulpits , clubs and rock mushrooms . They are all built of Ciężkowice sandstone of the Silesian Nappe of the Outer Carpathians. This sandstone was formed as a result of sedimentation about 58–48 million years ago at the bottom of the Tethys Ocean . In the post-glacial period, the sandstones underwent selective weathering . The blow-crack planes were most exposed to weathering, the fragments most resistant to weathering survived, and this led to the creation of various, isolated rock forms.

The name of the reserve is related to the legend according to which the rocks in the reserve are the houses of the city, which were petrified together with the inhabitants. It was a punishment for the wicked life of its inhabitants ^[8] . The names of the rocks refer to their shapes, eg "Pyramids", "Mushroom", "Orzel". Most of the rocks are related to some legends, with some even more than one.

The blue tourist trail runs through the Petrified City. You can start your tour from the car park located about 1 km from the center of Ciężkowice, on the left side of the Tarnów - Ciężkowice - Gorlice road. Two of the rock outcrops: "Czarownica" and "Ratusz" are on the right side of this road, on the Biała River, and are accessed by a special tourist viaduct over the road. Right next to the parking lot, there is the "Grunwald" outcrop, behind it the Glade Gorge Scouts with benches and tables, and then all the other rocks.