Zagnańsk

Description

The little town of Zagnańsk is located on the territory of the  Suchedniowski-Oblęgorski Landscape Park, surrounded by beautiful woods of the Świętokrzyska Forest. These woods became an excellent source of raw material for the nearby foundries in Samsonów and Bobrza in the 18th century. Timber was loaded on carriages of the local narrow-gauge railway and brought to the sawmill at Zagnańsk. Since the time of World War I these railway lines penetrated woods of the region and reached as far as Mt Łysica and Święty Krzyż. After World War II certain section served passenger traffic for a while, but in the 1980s the whole infrastructure was dismantled. Now only an eye of an experienced tourist is able to identify barely noticeable remains of the once extensive industrial transportation network.

Legendary oak Bartek
It is not the timber carrying narrow-gauge railway line that made Zagnańsk well-known, but the 700-year-old Bartek. Still at the beginning of the century Bartek was believed to be about 1200-year-old, but recent tests put its age at around 700 years. A legend has it that its mighty branches offered shelter to kings, princes, gentry and other inhabitants of that land. In the shade of its huge boughs rested such Poland"s kings as Bolesław Chrobry (Boleslaus the Brave), Bolesław Krzywousty (Boleslaus the Wry-Mouthed), Kazimierz III Wielki (Casimir III the Great), Władysław II Jagiełło (Ladislaus II Jagiello), and Jan III Sobieski (John III Sobieski). Another legend says that king Jan III Sobieski deposited his sward, harquebus, and a carboy of good wine in its hollow. Soon bark covered the hollow and Bartek still protects the king"s private belongings.