Szlak Waloński - etap I

Walloons - these were former seekers of minerals and precious stones who came to the Karkonosze and Jizera Mountains. They were called: "... all foreign Venetians, Florentines or other Walloons who, as mountain people, seekers of stones or experts in glass, searched the mountains." The Walloon "capital" was Stara Wieś Szklarska - today part of Szklarska Poręba Dolna. A settlement was established here with a chapel on Orla Skała, an inn and a court linden tree. The Walloons showed the metallurgists local deposits of quartz. The first glassworks is mentioned in a document from 7 August 1366 as "long since located in Szklarska Poręba". On the Kamienna River there was a vitriolene plant - a plant producing sulfuric acid from pyrite shales.

Near the Szklarka waterfall, the Walloons discovered deposits of smoky quartz, and in the Kamienna valley gold and amethysts. Of particular importance was the Wobbling boulder - a rock that could be shaken, which according to Walloon legends blocked access to hidden treasures.

Today, you too can feel the aura of the centuries-old history of treasure hunters, traversing the forest paths. Discovering mysterious Walloon symbols carved on rocks, you may find your way to hidden treasures...
The first loop of the Walloon Trail takes the form of an educational trail. It runs through places where the Walloons conducted their searches and made many valuable mineralogical discoveries. The second loop aims to show how the presence of the Walloons influenced the former and current inhabitants of Szklarska Poręba.

The trail leads from Szklarska Poręba Dolna from the cemetery church of Our Lady of the Rosary (there are also convenient parking lots for cars here), next to the Lipa Sądowa, near the location of the oldest glassworks, through the Kamieńczyk valley, then through the Szklarki waterfall, Stara Chata Walońska, the Museum of the Earth, the Wlastimil Hofman Museum, Złoty Widok, Grób Karkonosza, Chybotek back to the parking lots in Szklarska Poręba Dolna.

This is an easy trail, accessible to all tourists regardless of age and level of preparation, richly illustrated with boards with descriptions of the more interesting places on the trail, marked as an educational trail in red.