Surowce skalne w murach klasztoru na Łysej Górze : walory edukacyjne i estetyczne – propozycja wycieczki geologicznej

Historic monastery of Holy Cross located on the top of Mt Łysa Góra (Bald Mountain) (595 m a.s.l.), which is one of the highest hills of Świętokrzyskie (Holy Cross) Mountains, is to be considered cultural and historical centre of the Świętokrzyskie region. Despite of eventful, almost a thousand-year, history, numerous destructions and redevelopments, the monastery, which up to the middle of 17th century was the biggest Polish religious sanctuary, is nowadays visited by hundreds of thousands of people annually. Through the ages, multiple types of natural building stones were used for the purpose of wall construction as well as for decoration of interiors of the monastery. In comparison with other architectural objects of the region, the monastery of Holy Cross is characterized with big diversity. Bearing in mind persistency and beauty of the structure, multiple types of natural building stones were brought to the top of Bald Mountain and can still be admired while visiting the abbey. Rocks, which represent almost entire lithostratigraphic sequence, from the Cambrian to the Neogene, can be found here. Majority of them comes from the area of Świętokrzyskie (Holy Cross) Mountains and its vicinity, however some details were made of precious raw materials imported from Scandinavia, Belgium, England and Italy, which were very rare in this part of Poland. Nowadays, viewing stone decoration of Holy Cross sanctuary, not only enables to admire work of art, but also gives the possibility to get acknowledged with richness and diversity of rocks as well as multiple interesting geological structures, which they include.