Czantoria Wielka

Czantoria Wielka (Czech Velká Čantoryje, also called Wielka Czantoria) is a 995 m mountain in the Silesian Beskids on the border of Poland and the Czech Republic. It is the highest summit of the Stożek–Czantoria range and also the highest peak of the Czech part of the Silesian Beskids. The summit lies where the territories of the Polish towns of Ustroń and Wisła meet the Czech village of Nýdek, in historical Cieszyn Silesia. The ridge carries Poland's main watershed between the Vistula and Oder basins. Thanks to the chairlift from Ustroń, it is one of the most visited peaks of the Polish Beskids.

The mountain has steep eastern and western slopes: the height difference between Ustroń at its foot and the summit is about 630 m. The top itself is flat and broad, and the lower Czantoria Mała (866 m) rises to the north.

How to get there / routes

The red Main Beskid Trail (GSB), named after Kazimierz Sosnowski, crosses the summit — from Ustroń via Czantoria Mała and on south to Beskidek Pass, Soszów and Stożek. According to Polish Wikipedia, approximate ascent times are:

• from Ustroń Polana — about 1 h 45 min (1 h 15 min down);
• from central Ustroń — about 2 h 30 min, or about 3 h via Czantoria Mała;
• on the green trail from Goleszów via Tuł and Czantoria Mała — about 3 h 45 min;
• from Stożek or central Wisła via Soszów Wielki and Beskidek Pass — 3 h 30 min to 3 h 45 min.

The easiest way up is the "Czantoria" chairlift from Ustroń Polana to the Stokłosica clearing below the summit (built in 1967, modernised in 2007); from the upper station it is a short walk to the top. The blue Jan Galicz trail starts at Ustroń-Zdrój railway station. On the Czech side the starting point is Nýdek: the trail to the summit is about 5 km long, and the 10.5 km Knights' Trail (Rytířská stezka) educational path starts and ends in Nýdek.

What you can see from the summit

On the summit, just on the Czech side of the border, stands a steel observation tower with a platform 29 m above the ground (admission charged), built in 2002. It looks over the Silesian and Moravian-Silesian Beskids, the Vistula valley, the Silesian Foothills and Upper Silesia. In good visibility Czech sources mention even the Little Fatra and the Tatras, while Polish ones list the Goczałkowice Reservoir, Żory, Jastrzębie-Zdrój, Karviná and Ostrava.

Nature and history

The slopes are covered mostly by beech and spruce-fir forests mixed with sycamore, ash and larch, with grassy clearings and rock outcrops here and there. Forest reserves protect the area below the summit on both sides of the border: the Polish "Czantoria" reserve and the Czech "Čantoryje" national nature reserve. The name is linked to "Czartoryja" — a place "dug up by devils"; it was first recorded in 1615. A legend tells of sleeping knights with three hundred horses who wait in a gilded hall inside the mountain to help Silesia in its darkest hour.

The Czech hut below the summit was built by the German tourist association Beskidenverein in 1904. In 1920 the new Polish–Czechoslovak border was drawn along the ridge. On the western slope near Zakamień lies the "Protestants' Stone", one of the "forest churches" where Lutherans worshipped secretly during the Counter-Reformation. Between the wars Czantoria was a smuggling route, and in 1990 a group of Polish activists led by Adam Michnik tore down the border fence on the summit in protest against the Iron Curtain.

Safety, season and rules

Czantoria is accessible all year; in winter a ski run descends from the Stokłosica clearing to Ustroń Polana, so take care where trails cross it. Forest-reserve rules apply near the summit — stay on the marked paths. Weather on the ridge changes quickly, and in fog it is easy to take the wrong branch at the many trail junctions. On the Polish side help comes from the Beskid group of GOPR: 985 or +48 601 100 300; on the Czech side from the Horská služba mountain rescue: 1210. The general emergency number is 112.

Interesting facts

• Since the 1930s the summit has hosted traditional meetings of Esperanto speakers from Czechia, Slovakia and Poland.
• The tourist border crossing on the summit was abolished on 21 December 2007, when both countries joined the Schengen Area.
• One theory derives the name from centaury (Centaurium), a herb locals called "čantoryjka".

Photos: Maoman, CC BY-SA 4.0; Jerzy Opioła, CC BY-SA 4.0; Adrian Tync, CC BY-SA 4.0; Jerzy Opioła, CC BY-SA 4.0; Jerzy Opioła, CC BY-SA 4.0; Andrzej Otrębski, CC BY-SA 4.0 — Wikimedia Commons.