The Kraków-Częstochowa Upland, also known as the Polish Jurassic Highland or Polish Jura ( pl, Jura Krakowsko-Częstochowska), is part of the

Jurassic The Jurassic ( ) is a Geological period, geologic period and System (stratigraphy), stratigraphic system that spanned from the end of the Triassic Period million years ago (Mya) to the beginning of the Cretaceous Period, approximately Mya. The J ...

System of south–central

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

, stretching between the cities of

Kraków Kraków (), or Cracow, is the second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city dates back to the seventh century. Kraków was the official capital of Poland until 1596 ...

Częstochowa Częstochowa ( , ; german: Tschenstochau, Czenstochau; la, Czanstochova) is a city in southern Poland on the Warta River with 214,342 inhabitants, making it the thirteenth-largest city in Poland. It is situated in the Silesian Voivodeship (admin ...

and Wieluń. The Polish Jura borders the Lesser Polish Upland to the north and east, the foothills of the Western Carpathians to the south and

Silesian Upland Silesian Upland or Silesian Highland ( pl, Wyżyna Śląska) is a highland located in Silesia and Lesser Poland, Poland. Its highest point is the St. Anne Mountain (406 m). See also *Silesian Lowlands *Silesian-Lusatian Lowlands * Silesian ...

to the west. The Polish Jura consists of a hilly landscape with

limestone rocks, cliffs, valleys and vast

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...

formations, featuring some 220 caves. The relief of the upland developed since the

Paleogene The Paleogene ( ; British English, also spelled Palaeogene or Palæogene; informally Lower Tertiary or Early Tertiary) is a geologic period, geologic period and system that spans 43 million years from the end of the Cretaceous Period million yea ...

, under climatic conditions changing considerably. Its main component is a peneplain, crowned by

monadnock An inselberg or monadnock () is an isolated rock hill, knob, ridge, or small mountain that rises abruptly from a gently sloping or virtually level surrounding plain. In Southern Africa a similar formation of granite is known as a koppie, a ...

s, rocky masses that resisted erosion, generated as hard rock on Late Jurassic buildup surrounded by less resistant bedded limestone of the same age."Pattern of karst landscape of the Cracow Upland (South Poland)" by Witold Stefan Alexandrowicz and Zofia Alexandrowicz, Acta Carsologica, Slovenian Academy Of Sciences The Polish Jura is visited by roughly 400,000 visitors a year. Part of it belongs to the

Ojców National Park Ojców National Park ( pl, Ojcowski Park Narodowy) is a national park in Kraków County, Lesser Poland Voivodeship in southern Poland, established in 1956. It takes its name from the village of Ojców, where it also has its headquarters. Chopin ...

, the smallest of Poland's twenty

national park A national park is a nature park, natural park in use for conservation (ethic), conservation purposes, created and protected by national governments. Often it is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state dec ...

s, ranking among the most attractive recreational areas of the country. Congress of the Jurassic System, Kraków, Poland.

Flora and fauna

The Kraków-Częstochowa Jurassic Upland consists of a rich

ecosystem An ecosystem (or ecological system) consists of all the organisms and the physical environment with which they interact. These biotic and abiotic components are linked together through nutrient cycles and energy flows. Energy enters the syste ...

, partly because of the unique

microclimate A microclimate (or micro-climate) is a local set of atmospheric conditions that differ from those in the surrounding areas, often with a slight difference but sometimes with a substantial one. The term may refer to areas as small as a few squ ...

and also because of the whole upland being surrounded by a natural forest. "Krakow - Czestochowa Upland"
Agencja Promocji Regionów ORANET. Plant and animal life is very diverse with over 1600 species of plants and 5500 species of animals. These include 4600 species of

insect Insects (from Latin ') are pancrustacean hexapod invertebrates of the class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body ( head, thorax and abdomen), three pairs ...

s, including 1700 of

beetle Beetles are insects that form the order Coleoptera (), in the superorder Endopterygota. Their front pair of wings are hardened into wing-cases, elytra, distinguishing them from most other insects. The Coleoptera, with about 400,000 describ ...

s and 1075 of

butterflies Butterflies are insects in the macrolepidopteran clade Rhopalocera from the Order (biology), order Lepidoptera, which also includes moths. Adult butterflies have large, often brightly coloured wings, and conspicuous, fluttering flight. The ...

and 135 of

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweigh ...

Mammal Mammals () are a group of vertebrate animals constituting the class Mammalia (), characterized by the presence of mammary glands which in females produce milk for feeding (nursing) their young, a neocortex (a region of the brain), fur or ...

s include the

beaver Beavers are large, semiaquatic rodents in the genus ''Castor'' native to the temperate Northern Hemisphere. There are two extant species: the North American beaver (''Castor canadensis'') and the Eurasian beaver (''C. fiber''). Beavers ar ...

, badger, ermine and 15 species of

bat Bats are mammals of the order Chiroptera.''cheir'', "hand" and πτερόν''pteron'', "wing". With their forelimbs adapted as wings, they are the only mammals capable of true and sustained flight. Bats are more agile in flight than most bi ...

s, many of which

hibernate Hibernation is a state of minimal activity and metabolic depression undergone by some animal species. Hibernation is a seasonal heterothermy characterized by low body-temperature, slow breathing and heart-rate, and low metabolic rate. It most ...

in the park's caves during the winter. The climate of the upland differs significantly from the surrounding area. The

snow Snow comprises individual ice crystals that grow while suspended in the atmosphere—usually within clouds—and then fall, accumulating on the ground where they undergo further changes. It consists of frozen crystalline water throughout ...

pack covers the area for 80 days a year and the rainy season lasts from April until September. Annual precipitation varies between 650–700 mm, higher than in surrounding regions, the median temperature is lower, from 0.5 to 1.0°C. Average temperature is 19°C in summer and -3°C in winter. There are a number of rivers that originate from the Kraków-Częstochowa Upland, among them the Warta,

Biała Przemsza Biała Przemsza is a river of Poland, a tributary of the Przemsza near Mysłowice Mysłowice ( szl, Myslowicy; german: Myslowitz) is a city in Silesia in southern Poland, near Katowice. The population of the city is 74,085. It is located in ...

, Pilica, Dłubnia, Szreniawa, Prądnik, Wiercica and Rudawa. Apart from a diversity of plant and animal species, one can find a unique cultural landscape with archeological objects and relics of ancient inhabitation, with a vast collection of artifacts. The earliest settlement in the area dates to the

Paleolithic The Paleolithic or Palaeolithic (), also called the Old Stone Age (from Greek: παλαιός ''palaios'', "old" and λίθος ''lithos'', "stone"), is a period in human prehistory that is distinguished by the original development of stone too ...

period, approximately 12,000 years ago. The region is rich in

flint Flint, occasionally flintstone, is a sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as the variety of chert that occurs in chalk or marly limestone. Flint was widely used historically to make stone tools and start fir ...

, which attracted early humans.

Gallery

File:Jaskinia Ciemna.jpg, Statues of

Neanderthal Neanderthals (, also ''Homo neanderthalensis'' and erroneously ''Homo sapiens neanderthalensis''), also written as Neandertals, are an extinct species or subspecies of archaic humans who lived in Eurasia until about 40,000 years ago. While th ...

in the Dark Cave File:Skała Grodzisko a1.jpg, Highland

Outlier In statistics, an outlier is a data point that differs significantly from other observations. An outlier may be due to a variability in the measurement, an indication of novel data, or it may be the result of experimental error; the latter are ...

File:OPN Skała Rękawica.jpg, Crown Rocks File:Złoty Potok Staw Amerykan.jpg, American pond in Złoty Potok File:Bergaster.jpg, ''

Aster amellus ''Aster amellus'', the European Michaelmas daisy, is a perennial herbaceous plant in the genus '' Aster'' of the family Asteraceae. Etymology The specific name ''amellus'' is first used in the Georgics (Book IV, 271–280), a poem of the Lati ...

'' File:Sempervivum montanum.JPG, Mountain swarm (''Sempervivum montanum L.'') File:Saxifraga paniculata a5.jpg, '' Saxifraga paniculata'' File:Wielbłąd DK14 (2).jpg, Camel Rock on Zborów Mountain File:Skały Rzędkowickie Dk14.jpg, Rzędkowickie rocks File:Góra Zborów DK11 (16).jpg, Zborów mountain nature reserve File:Skały Mirowskie DK12 (11).jpg, Mirowskie rocks File:Dolina Kluczwody a7.jpg, Kluczwody Valley File:Dolina Mnikowska a8.jpg, Mnikowska Valley File:Brama Krakowska, Dolina Prądnika.jpg,

Kraków Gate Kraków Gate ( pl, Brama Krakowska) is one of the few rock gates in Ojców National Park. It is in the Valley of the Pradnik and closes the outlet of the Cracow Gorge Gateway to the valley. It is a classic example of the gates of rock. The name ...

File:Dolina Prądnika OPN7 (3).jpg, Canyon of Prądnik File:Eagles Nests Trail 03.jpg, Club of Hercules File:Maczuga Herkulesa from Castle.JPG, Club of Hercules File:Maczuga Herkulesa 1.jpg, Club of Hercules File:Polska Olsztyn(śląskie) 006.jpg, Typical landscape File:Tatry-ze-skalki-502.jpg, View of the Tatra mountains, 115 km away from the ruins of Grodzisko castle near

Gmina Skała __NOTOC__ Gmina Skała is an urban-rural gmina (administrative district) in Kraków County, Lesser Poland Voivodeship, in southern Poland. Its seat is the town of Skała, which lies approximately north of the regional capital Kraków. The gmin ...

File:Jaskinia Wierzchowska Górna a2.jpg, Wierzchowska Górna Cave File:Dolina Prądnika a3.jpg, Prądnik river valley File:Gory Towarne Kusieta.JPG, Mount Towarne File:Bolechowicki Gully Nature reserve, Bolechowicka Gate, Karniowice village, Kraków County, Lesser Poland Voivodeship, Poland.jpg, Bolechowicka Gate File:Sokolica a1 (Dolina Będkowska).jpg, Sokolica File:Skały Rzędkowickie Turnia Lechfora 29.05.2010 p.jpg, Rzędkowickie rocks File:OkiennikWielki2.JPG, The Great Window File:Biaklo Olsztyn.JPG ;Castles File:Zamek-Ogrodzieniec.jpg, Ruins of the Ogrodzieniec Castle in Podzamcze File:Ogrodzieniec zamek 2.jpg, Ruins of the Ogrodzieniec Castle File:Ogrodzieniec-Zamek-Tamerlan.jpg, Ruins of the castle Ogrodzieniec File:Zamek w Olsztynie DK12 (2).jpg, Ruins of Olsztyn Castle File:Castle in Olsztyn.JPG, Ruins of the castle Olsztyn File:Zamek w Mirowie DK12.jpg, Ruins of Mirów Castle File:Mirów zamek 29.05.2010 p4.jpg, Ruins of the Mirów castle File:Zamek w Smoleniu DK11. (2).jpg, Ruins of Smoleniu Castle File:Polska Olsztyn(śląskie) 001.jpg, Ruins of

Gmina Olsztyn __NOTOC__ Gmina Olsztyn is a rural gmina (administrative district) in Częstochowa County, Silesian Voivodeship, in southern Poland. Its seat is the village of Olsztyn, Silesian Voivodeship, Olsztyn, which lies approximately south-east of Częstoc ...

File:Teczyn2.JPG, Tenczyn Castle File:Pieskowa Skała 1.jpg, Renaissance castle Pieskowa Skała File:Zamek Bobolice 2013.JPG, Bobolice Castle (after reconstruction in 2002–11) File:20140820 Zamek w Bydlinie 3686.jpg, Ruins of the castle Bydlin File:Zamek Lipowiec 8 maja 2010.jpg, Ruins of the castle Lipowiec File:Ruiny zamku Rabsztyn - przemasban71.JPG, The ruins of the castle Rabsztyn

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Krakow-Czestochowa Upland Mountain ranges of Poland Geography of Lesser Poland Voivodeship Lesser Poland Voivodeship