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The Pradnik River (Poland)
No 1085
1. BASIC DATA
State Party: Republic of Poland
Name of property: The Valley of the Pradnik River in
the Ojkowski National Park – a
unique complex of cultural
landscape
Location: Malopolska, Cracow Province
Date received: 21 January 2002
Category of property:
In terms of the categories of cultural property set out
in Article 1 of the 1972 World Heritage Convention,
this is a site. In terms of Operational Guidelines para.
39 it could also be a cultural landscape.
Brief description:
The Valley of the Pradnik River in the Ojkowski
National Park is a picturesque, miniature, limestone
gorge, characterised by typical geomorphological
features and a dense concentration of cultural features: a
long archaeology principally in caves, and defensive,
decorative and vernacular buildings. A place at the
forefront of conservation in Poland since the 19 th
century, it is rich in artistic and scientific associations
and continues to stimulate creative work.
2. THE PROPERTY
Description
The Pradnik Valley in the Ojcowski National Park
(ONP) has long been known in Poland as a
picturesque place with high scenic natural and
cultural values, derived from its striking rock
formations, caves, fortifications, castles and
traditional wooden architecture.
The property lies in Malopolska (Little Poland) in the
south of Poland, some 20 km north west of Cracow.
The nominated area is entirely within the Ojkowski
National Park (ONP) and is about 10 km long and on
average some 1.5 km wide, embracing ca 1500 ha.
The surrounding buffer zone is ca 7350 ha. The
boundary of the core zone in general follows the
skyline as viewed from the floor of the river valley
and its tributaries, and includes three major
viewpoints over the landscape.
The property thus defined contains ‘the most
characteristic segment of the Pradnik Valley, a karst
gorge from Pieskowa Skala to the village of Ojcow’. It
essentially consists of a narrow, steep-sided valley cut
by the Pradnik River through the limestone, the whole
rather small-scale and even intimate. It shows typical
characteristics of such a geomorphology, notably a
77
sinuous course, near-vertical cliffs, caves (210 of
them), and ‘needles’ of rock left standing by
circumambient erosion.
Specifically the nominated area contains:
•= Prehistoric & archaeological sites;
•= Sacred art & architecture;
•= Defensive structures;
•= Rural vernacular buildings;
•= Industrial structures;
•= Designed landscapes;
•= Resort buildings.
These are considering separately:
Prehistoric & archaeological sites: The valley had
many features which proved attractive to early
settlers, such as a concentration of caves, the
proximity of running water and the occurrence of
flint, a key resource for the manufacture of tools and
weapons This is exemplified in the richness of the
early prehistoric remains. Evidence for human
occupation at the Ciemna cave in Ojcow dates back to
the Middle Palaeolithic ca 120,000 years ago, and is
thus one of the oldest archaeological finds recorded in
Poland. The finds included flint tools, bones of
Neanderthal man and of animals from the tundra and
steppe-tundra zones, such as reindeer, mammoth and
bison.
With the retreat of the glaciers and an emerging
warmers climate, the valley proved attractive to new
groups of humans from around 100,000 BCE. These
people were engaged in the hunting of cave animals
such as bears. Traces of small hunting camps assigned
to the so-called Pradnik Culture, have been found
along the length of the Pradnik valley.
In the last period of glaciation, cooler climate
constrained settlement and evidence is only found in
the middle phases when modern man begun to settle
in hilltop camps. Advances in the making of flint
tools at this time – so-called leaf blades – allowed the
development of weapons for hunting large Pleistocene
mammals. There is considerable evidence for
settlements right through the Old and Middle Stone
Ages and into the Neolithic. By this time, flint was
being mined and also exported out of the area. Such
was the stability of the Neolithic communities, that
large agricultural settlements begun to emerge.
The valley seems to have been less attractive to
Bronze Age farmers and it wasn’t until the
3 rd century BC that more settlers – the Celts – moved
into the area, bringing a rich culture and new
technologies. They survived until 4 th century AD
when the destructive forces of the Huns caused, as in
the rest of southern Poland, complete depopulation
which lasted right through until the 11 th century.
The final formation of the settlement pattern in the
Pradnik valley came in early mediaeval times when
ecclesiastical organisation was strengthening and this
is manifest in the building of parish churches. In the