Połom
The Połom Mountain (667 m) towering over Wojcieszów attracts attention from a distance with its silhouette dominated by horizontal mining excavations of a large limestone quarry. While the presence of a mining facility may prevent visiting the hill, it’s impossible to ignore its description due to the widespread occurrence of karst caves in the area. These caves have developed within the local crystalline Cambrian limestones, dating back to approximately half a billion years ago. Unfortunately, many of them were irreversibly destroyed during industrial mining, which began on a large scale at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries.
Karst caves are rare in the Sudetes due to the small surface area occupied by limestone rocks. However, in the Połom area, they were abundant. Some of the notable caves in the area include: Jaskinia Północna Duża (103 metres long): known for the discovery of Pleistocene animal remains in the 1930s., Jaskinia Gwiaździsta: previously the second-longest cave in the Sudetes (565 metres long), Szczelina Wojcieszowska: the deepest of the Sudeten caves, with a depth of 112.6 metres, Jaskinia Jasna: with a denivelation of 95 metres, Jaskinia Nowa (227 metres long): located above the town and partially flooded in an old mining pit and Jaskinia Kryształowa (130 metres long): known for its impressive speleothems (cave formations).
The caves of Połom are geologically old, with their age likely dating back to the middle of the Cenozoic Era. As the Sudetes were uplifted and the Kaczawa Valley deepened, additional cave passages were formed at progressively lower elevations.
Description: Piotr Migoń
