Krzemionki prehistoric flint mines

First things first, it's Q3 2021 and the tunnel is open again. With it the site is fully accessible for visitors. I had waited for more than a year to complete Poland again; Covid travel restrictions may have also played a role.

The tunnel links multiple mines and follows the flint stone layer upwards, giving you a good understanding of the spread and rather limited depth of flint stones. It's assumed that the flint stones formed as a ground layer of a lake, so the flint stone layer tilt upwards. Supposedly, the deeper layers are of better quality. Side note: Flint stone mining was a temporary activitiy. The soil of the area was too bad for permanent habitation.

While technically, you can tick the site by roaming around the premises or the other locations (many open pits remain and are visible), you would be missing out on the key feature of the site: The small painting of a woman giving birth (?!). I am not sold on the giving birth part, but it sure was nice to see down in the tunnel.

In comparison to Spiennes which gives you an idea of the narrowness of a flint stone mine, Krzemionki feels more explorable and gives you a better overview, especially in combination with the onsite museum, consisting of a multi media part and an outdoor museeum.

Getting There

I came by car with a friend, but had investigated public transport options as a fallback. The …

I visited this WHS in August 2020. Due to the works being carried out till 2021 to upgrade the Krzemionki tourist route underground experience and make it more accessible, I couldn't 'enjoy' the full experience, but based on photos, videos and other reviews, the only value added I missed when compared to the Spiennes WHS, was the pictogram/rock art, used as the museum's logo.

Thanks to Martina and Ivan's previous visit and help, and to avoid a forecast thunderstorm in the Zamosc area, I decided to go ahead and try to have a look at what's on offer at all 4 locations. The GPS coordinates on the official UNESCO website are precise although you'll have to zoom in and out of your GPS to make sure you avoid unpaved roads, pathways or non-existant roads. I started with the Krzemionki Museum and Archaeological Reserve which is a well-developed gateway to just one of the 4000 prehistoric mines of striped flint near Ostrowiec Swiezokrzyski. The WHS is unique mostly due to the well-preserved mining waste piles and shaft depressions, which despite thousands of years remained almost unchanged, even though most is covered by fast growing overgrowth, so much so that near the museum is a nature reserve with boardwalks.

In Krzemionki, all the techniques of obtaining flint can be observed, from the simplest cavities to large sophisticated mines, i.e. sophisticated for Neolithic and Early Bronze Age times. This complex of mines was only discovered in 1922 by a geologist and …

Visited this site in August 2019 during weekend trip to Poland. Visitor center is located in lovely rural setting, however the main entrance seems to be for administrative and the cash desk is located on the lateral side. There was no English tour available, so I joined Polish tour for 18 Zloty. While waiting for the tour it is possible to browse adjacent Archaeological museum, which only has explanation in Polish. There were many illustrations of shrimps and crabs at the information stands, so afterwards it was interesting to find out myself through internet the process of flint formation, in which indeed they played leading role.

The site seems to be quite popular among locals and approximately 20 people continued to the forest with the guide. Krzemionki is on the world’s largest concentration of flint mines with more than 4,000 prehistoric mines. On the route, there are first two covered restored mines with human figures of prehistoric people followed by the most interesting part beings, underground chamber mines. These were most advanced among different mine types and reached the depth of 9 meters. The tourist route is currently 465 meters long. It is full of black flint formations embedded in the white limestone. One of the highlights is prehistoric charcoal anthropomorphic drawing of a human figure near the exit from underground tunnel. This figure serves as the logo of Krzemionki. Some researchers support the opinion that this pictogram is a forgery (made by a student during internships in the …

Site visited in early 90ties and revisited shortly after inscription (July 2019).

I must say I really like this place. Comparing to Spiennes it is better preserved and much more interesting. It is also well maintained and prepared for mass tourism. All that applies to main component (Krzemionki Opatowskie) - area located between villages Sudół and Magonie (coordinates 50.971817, 21.491227). It is a place where former Krzemionki village was located, now it is only museum and archeological reserve of former flint mining.

At first glance it may not be very spectacular. These only visible remnants of mining activities are just small mounds or holes in the forest. But the real treasure lies under the ground. This is fully preserved flint mine from Neolthic period including corridors cut in the limestone and chambers. As far as I know it is the only one in world (those at Spiennes are just individual shatfs not connected each to another). The main reason for its preservation was lack of human settlement in the area after the place was abandoned in early Bronze Age (around 1600 BC).

Some practicalities as of July, 2019: visit of archeological reserve and museum is possible only with a guide. Fees are not big comparing to other monuments (18 / 12 PLN normal discounted, which is approximately 4,25 / 2,8 EUR), the whole trip takes around one hour and includes 500 m underground walk. Be prepared to take some warm clothes with you as these galleries are …

The Krzemionki Prehistoric Striped Flint Mining Region has been included in the List this year. ICOMOS in its evaluation had asked for a Referral, mostly because of the need for adequate protection of all its components and the implementation of the management plan. Outstanding Universal Value has been proven though, also compared to the already inscribed Flint Mines of Spiennes. So an inscription was no surprise. On my recent Pentecost trip to Eastern Poland I made a small detour between Warsaw and Zamosc to check out what Krzemionki is all about.

"Krzemionki" is the name of a former village, but not the name of the current location. The main site lies between the villages of Sudół en Magonie, 8km northeast of Ostrowiec Świętokrzyski. I drove there in 2.5 hours from Warsaw airport. Nowadays it is a wooded area, with some administration buildings and a grand parking. This Saturday afternoon though there were only a few cars. When I bought my entrance ticket (18 zloty / 4.20 EUR), an English-speaking colleague was quickly called for help by the cashier lady. He told me that a tour had just started with a Polish and German speaking guide. After confirming that German is OK for me too, and I could join them immediately.

Together with 4 Polish tourists and guide Kinga I walked further into the forest. Thousands of flint mines lie beneath the ground here. They can be recognized by small ‘dents’ in the landscape, a bit similar to bomb …

Back in Aug 2015, our visit to Spiennes had been enhanced by a talk from a Polish academic who was assisting with the ongoing excavations there and just happened to lecturing on “Flint mines in Poland” to a gathering of specialists that afternoon in the lecture hall at the Visitor Centre. We were invited to attend and began to realise just how much there was to know about this subject! Mention was made of the flint mine at Krzemionki and I mentally “pencilled in” an intention to visit it if I ever found myself in that part of Poland…… thus it was that we were there just over 2 years later in mid Sep 2017 at opening time!

The site is situated around 8kms from the industrial city of Ostrowiec Swietokrzyski. We were travelling by car in a reasonably straight line between Bialowieza (c300kms NE) towards Krakow (still another 170kms SW) - and currently there isn’t a single WHS in this part of Poland between the 2! Apart from Warsaw and Torun, Poland’s WHS are mainly scattered around its periphery and there seems little reason for non Polish tourists to visit the area other than to “pass through”. We were somewhat surprised to find a large modern visitor centre set in this nondescript countryside. It turned out that over half the visitors to the site are Polish school children. The site also includes a “Nature Park” and a reconstructed “Stone Age Village” and is linked with an …