Ojców National Park (Polish: Ojcowski Park Narodowy) is a national park in Kraków County, Lesser Poland Voivodeship in southern Poland. It was created in 1956 and is named after the village of Ojców, where its main office is located. Chopin visited Ojców in 1829.

It is Poland's smallest national park. Originally, it covered 14.40 square kilometers (5.56 square miles), but it now includes 21.46 square kilometers (8.29 square miles). Of this area, 15.28 square kilometers (5.90 square miles) are forests, and 2.51 square kilometers (0.97 square miles) are strictly protected. The park is located 16 kilometers (10 miles) north of Kraków, in the Jurassic Kraków-Częstochowa Upland.

Geography

The park is known for its karst topography, which forms when soluble bedrock dissolves in water. This landscape includes two river valleys (the Prądnik and Saspówka), many limestone cliffs, ravines, and more than 400 caves. The largest cave, Łokietek's Cave, is 320 meters (1,050 feet) deep and is named after King Władysław I Łokietek, who is said to have lived there. A famous rock formation in the area is Hercules' Club, a limestone column that is 25 meters (82 feet) tall.

Ojcowski Park is home to over 5,500 species. These include 4,600 types of insects, such as 1,700 beetles and 1,075 butterflies, as well as 135 bird species. Mammals found in the park include beavers, badgers, ermines, and 15 bat species. Many bats hibernate in the park's caves during winter.

The water system in the park developed at the end of the Tertiary period due to deep erosion by streams. The main river is the Prądnik, and its tributary within the park is the Saspówka. Water flows into the streams from about 20 springs located in karst cracks, which are called "wywierzyska" (rising springs).

Human habitation and culture

The earliest people in the area lived during the Paleolithic period, about 120,000 years ago. The Ojców region had a lot of flint, a type of hard rock, which made it an important place for early humans.

The park has many castles. One is a ruined Gothic castle in Ojców, and another is a better-preserved Renaissance castle in Pieskowa Skała. Both are part of the tourist Trail of the Eagles' Nests. There are two museums in the park: the Professor Władyslaw Szafer Museum, named after the first person to support creating a national park in the Ojców area, and a branch of the National Art Collection from Kraków, located in the Pieskowa Skała castle.

Gallery

• Ojców National Park Museum
• Chapel on the Water
• Hercules's Bludgeon
• Kraków's Gate
• Pieskowa Skała Castle
• Ojców Castle Ruins
• Prądnik Valley
• Under the Crown Rock Formation