The Ostrzyca Proboszczowicka Mountain
The Ostrzyca Proboszczowicka Mountain is also called „Polish Fujiyama”; there is a reserve of geological and florist sites, established to protect colonies of plants and a unique basalt scree. The peak of the mountain is an upper part of a pipe of an extinct volcano and, at the same time, one of the best view points (501) in the region. An chronicler of old wrote: „Here one can shake the everyday ash off their feet and with a perfect forest air freshen their body and soul”. Rare snails living on rocks (Clausilia parvula) and rare butterfly species (Mountain Apollo) exist there. The cone may have played a role of a centre for solar cult in the Lusitian culture. During the Reformation, the region of Spitzberg (the former, German name of the mountain) was inhabited by many infidels, who were mainly the members of the Schwenckfelder Church. The legend tells that they fell out of a devil's sack. Once upon a time, the devil decided to take the infidels from Legnica and the neighborhood to the hell on the world's end. So he collected them into his huge sack, but it got torn by the horny peak of the mountain and the infidels scattered in the region. Even now, the descendants of these people come to Twardocice from all over the world to see the obelisk commemorating those times and their spiritual leader, Caspar Schwenckfeld. In the middle of the 19th century, a tavern and a hostel (two in one) was built beneath the peak of the mountain. At the same time, the basalt stairs with handrails and stone banks were built to make the way to the top easier. In 1945, there hid a partisan and a robber called the Black Johny. The image of the Silesian Fujiyama is element of picturesque and mysterious landscape of the Kaczawy Foothills. Starting from Belczyna and Proboszczow, the Trail of Piast Castles and the Trail across the Land of the Extinct Volcanoes run along the paths on the Ostrzyca Mountain.