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Walking Around Kielce

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Walking Around Kielce Outdoor recreation options There is probably no other city in Poland with such a wide range of recreational activities. We may follow the marked routes: hiking (long-distance trekking into the Holy Cross Mountains, walking, urban, nature trails), cycling (including racing loops and bike paths); horse-back riding or cross-coun- try skiing. In the city there are two ski slopes with a chair-lift and T-bar lifts as well as two ice rinks. A seasonal ice-climbing slope is organized in the old quarries of Kadzielnia in the win- ter, and in the summer you may test your climbing skills in these rock walls or in a rope park at the Forest Stadium. Walking around Kielce Touring route around the city The trails are marked with rectangular signs 15 cm wide and 9 cm high, with three bars, the upper and lower white, while the middle bar is red with arrows indicating the walking direc- tion. By the signs you will find circles with consecutive numbers, as described below. 1. Niepodległości Square (railway station) Here is the beginning and end of the city route. Around the square you will see pub- lic buildings erected in the 1960’s and 1970’s – a hotel, post office and the railway station with a monumental statue of Independence. Built in the 10th anniversary of Polish independence (1928), and destroyed by the Ger- Monument of Independence mans during the occupation, in front of the railway station the monument was carefully restored by a local society in 2002. 156 Outdoor recreation options Top: convent on Karczówka Hill – on the right a visible clearing of Karczówkowska Street with chapels of the Way of the Cross Bottom right: garrison church in the former Orthodox temple at the intersection of Karczówkowska and Chęcińska Streets. 2. Karczówkowska Street – convent buildings We may reach this street via a footbridge over the railway, it leads straight to the convent on Karczówka Hill. A detailed description can be found in the route of the Old-Polish Indus- trial Zone. 3. Garrison Church In the years 1902 to 1904 the Russian Orthodox temple was built in this place. After World War I the temple was renovated and adapted to the Roman Catholic liturgy, allocating it to the garrison church of Our Lady Queen of Poland. The building’s plan is a Greek (isosceles) cross, covered with a magnificent central dome. In the church there are a number of embedded plaques dedicated to prominent soldiers and partisans. 4. and 5. Szarych Szeregów (“Grey Lines” Scouts) Square In the square there is a monument dedicated to the boy scouts who died in our homeland’s defense, unveiled in 1982 157 Outdoor recreation options Top: alley with busts of artists, writers and poets in the square of “Grey Lines” (Szare Szeregi) Bottom left: bust of poet Krzysztof Kamil Baczyński during the celebrations of the 70th anniversary of scouting in Kielce. Along the adjacent alley there are statue heads of famous men and women of art and culture of the twentieth century. 6. Kadzielnia Detailed description – see route of Precious objects of na- ture. 7. Stadium, Museum of Geology, cemeteries Stadium Arena Kielce – before the Euro 2012 championships this stadium was for several years the only modern football pitch in Poland. It can accommodate 15,000 spectators. The museum displays the specimens of rocks and fossils from the periods between the Cambrian to the Quaternary, as well as rocks and minerals, which have been or are excavated on an industrial scale. An exhibit which arouses great interest 158 Outdoor recreation options is a block of limestone with the skeleton of a whale from the Tertiary period. Along the route to the museum there is a complex of cem- eteries that have been here since the beginning of the nineteenth century. In the Old Cemetery we may see historic sculpted tomb- stones, and in the military cemetery, the graves of national insur- gents and soldiers killed in the two world wars. By the main car park there is a unique monument “Homo Homini”, commemorat- ing the victims of terrorist attacks in different parts of the world. 8. Provincial House of Culture This imposing building was completed in 1935 as the Józef Piłsudski House of Physical and Military Education. In addition to the representational spaces lined with multi-colored marble, there is also a large gym hall. 9. The Monument of Legions’ Deed Kielce was the first major city liberated by troops of Józef Piłsudski (August 1914), and as such our town has become strongly associated with the tradition of the Polish Legions. The monument of Legions’ Deed carved by prominent artist Jan Raszka (1871–1945) was unveiled on the 2nd October, 1938, but destroyed by the Nazis. However it was restored and re- unveiled on the 11th August, 1991. 10. Manor house “Karsza” A single-floor building typifying Polish manor houses, “Colonnaded Portico” was built in the mid-nineteenth century. Between 1888 and 1890 it served as a studio for Jan Styka, co-painter of the famous canvas “Scenery of Racławice”. In April 1893 the artist travelled from here to Racławice to see the battlefield. On the façade there is a plaque commemorating the painter’s stay. 11. City Park Description – see Route 1. Old Town of Kielce 12. Holy Trinity Church Description – see Route 1. Old Town of Kielce 13. Museum of Stefan Żeromski’s School Years Description – see Route 1. Old Town of Kielce 14. Museum of Kielce Countryside Description – see Route 1. Old Town of Kielce 15. Diocesan Museum and Home Army Memorial Description – see Route 1. Old Town of Kielce 16. Cathedral (Minor Basilica) – Diocesan Marian Shrine Description – see Route 1. Old Town of Kielce 17. Palace of Kraków Bishops Description – see Route 1. Old Town of Kielce 159 Outdoor recreation options On the left: the plaque on the cemetery wall at St Adalbert Church Bottom: plaque describes concise history of Kielce and of cottage found in this place 18. Center for Civic and Patriotic Thought, Kielce Design Center Description – see Route 1. Old Town of Kielce 19. and 20. Palace of Zieliński, Gallery of Contemporary Sacred Art Description – see Route 1. Old Town of Kielce 21. Spring of Biruta Description – Route 1. Old Town of Kielce 22. Henryka Sienkiewicza Street Description – Route 1. Old Town of Kielce 23. Museum of Toys and Play Description – Route 1. Old Town of Kielce 24. Ecumenical Temple of Peace Description – see Route 1. Old Town of Kielce 160 Outdoor recreation options 25. Kielce Cultural Centre Description – see Route 1. Old Town of Kielce 26. Museum of History of Kielce Description – Route 2. Old Town of Kielce 27. St. Adalbert Church Description – see Route 2. Old Town of Kielce 28. Market Square Description – see Route 2. Old Town of Kielce 29. The former synagogue It was built in 1903. After its destruction during World War II, it has been restored and rebuilt. At the entrance to the building there is a monument to murdered Jews (both during World War II and during the pogrom in 1946) and a plaque, which commemorates the residents of Kielce who rescued Jews from the Holocaust. 30. Provincial Offices The impressive building of the Provincial Offices was erected in 1971 along a newly constructed avenue called Nine Centuries of Kielce (IX Wieków Kielc), which commemorated the medi- eval location of the city. From the promenade we have a nice view of the towers topping the buildings on Castle Hill (to the south) and of a neo-Gothic Holy Cross Church visible in the axis of the avenue (to the west) with an adjacent dome which is the central bus station resembling a flying saucer. Former synagogue at IX Wieków Kielc Avenue 161 Outdoor recreation options The bench of Jan Karski on Sienkiewicza Street 31. The bridge over Silnica River, the bench and statue of Jan Karski The bench hosts a statue of the famous courier who delivered to the communities of Western Europe and of the United States reports on German atrocities against Polish Jews during World War II. 32 Bank building at Sienkiewicza Street The oldest building in this area is the Mutual Credit Society house erected in 1912. The façade is typical of Art Nouveau decorative elements, lined up in the lower parts with blows of red sandstone from nearby Tumlin. Walking trails The city has approximately 70 kilometers of marked walking trails. Two of them – marked with green and blue colors, begin at Artystów Square by the Tourist Information Centre (Sienkie- wicza Street 29), and another – yellow one runs a loop, mainly across green areas on the outskirts of Kielce. Walking trails in Kielce were marked as part of an initiative of the municipality with square signs each divided into a white triangle and another of the corresponding colors: green, blue, or yellow. Whenever the trail is turning, additional white tri- angles are added in the direction in which you need to walk. Depending on the color of the triangle we will call the trails green, blue or yellow. 162.
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