Surrounded by rocky guards - Ogrodzieniec castle.

It was the third Eagle's Nest, which I visited this year, and it is probably the most popular among tourists. There are souvenir stalls, food trucks, and restaurants all around. It is full of people there on weekends and during the summer holidays. I came on a weekday in the off-season, so there were no crowds until the school excursions came.

I wrote more about the Eagles' Nests trail here. As a reminder - Eagles' Nests were fortified castles built in the 14th century on the border between Poland and Silesia, which belonged to the Kingdom of Bohemia. The castles were built on high, hard-to-reach rocks, hence their name. We can still admire them, although most of them are only ruins.

The road to the castle in Ogrodzieniec is not very attractive, although I like such landscapes :)

Even being in the ruin, the fortress is impressive. It has been in this condition since the turn of the 17th / 18th century due to the Swedish invasions. Many castles, palaces, and noble mansions were destroyed in those days.

As with all the Eagles' Nests in the area, the castle walls almost blend in with the rocks.

There are many limestone rock formations around the ruins; their intriguing shapes result from ages of erosion. They look like guarding the castle.

The trail of Eagles' Nests lies in the picturesque area of The Kraków-Częstochowa Jura Upland, full of limestone rocks and caves.

If you want to see the Jura "in a nutshell," you should go to the Ojców National Park. The deep valley carved by the Prądnik River abounds with original rock formations and caves. There, you will find the Pieskowa Skała castle, which also belongs to the Eagles' Nests Trail. The whole trail is about 160 km long, and you can walk it on your feet starting from Krakow :)

But let's go back to Ogrodzieniec, which is about 60 km from Krakow (I got there by bus 😉)

The castle is surrounded by a stone wall, built in the 16th century, about 200 years after the castle was built. The rocks are like natural towers.

I found more high rocks among the trees. GOPR (the Polish mountain ambulance service) considers the whole area dangerous.

But danger may be an adventure for some. Climbers like this place; I found marks on their paths.

On the hill, near the castle, you can find "slightly" younger defensive structures - remains of the combat bunker built by the German occupation administration at the end of World War II. At that time, the area of the Kraków-Częstochowa Jura with numerous hills and rocks was eagerly used to build military facilities.

The wall ends at some point, but the terrain is rocky, and it would be challenging to get to the castle this way.

What else is worth seeing in the area? I recommend the miniature park, where you can find all the Eagles' Nests reconstructions.

It is probably how the castle in Ogrodzieniec looked once, the miniature you can admire against the background of the actual ruins.

It's also worth going into the castle to see the ruins from the inside, but when I was finishing my walk, many tour buses came, and I resigned. I am lucky to live relatively close, so I have been in Ogrodzieniec several times as a child and after years with my sons when they were little. They enjoyed the souvenir stalls and people dressed as knights the most :)

It is a place passed from generation to generation. I wonder if my sons will take their kids there someday.

Greetings from Jura!

_{--- Thanks for stopping by! --- @astinmin
I'm the only author of the text and photos.}