Zamkowa Góra

Zamkowa Góra (“Castle Hill”) is a summit of about 799 m at the end of the north-eastern spur of the Trzy Korony massif in the Central Pieniny. Older literature called it “Blessed Kinga's Mountain”. It lies in the Pieniny National Park within Krościenko nad Dunajcem (Nowy Targ County, Lesser Poland); central Krościenko is about 2.2 km to the north and the summit of Trzy Korony less than 1 km to the south-west. The main reason to come here is the ruin of the medieval Pieniny Castle (St Kinga's Castle) and the grotto of St Kinga on the northern slope.

On three sides the hill has steep, hard-to-reach slopes; only to the south does a narrow ridge connect it via the Zamkowa pass with Ostry Wierch and the rest of the massif. The north-eastern slopes drop in two ribs to the Pieniński Potok, which separates the hill from the Pieninki; the ribs carry the Mała and Wielka Pustelnica rocks, and the latter hides the Pieniny Cave. The southern side is cut by a cliff about 50 m high.

How to get there / routes

The blue Main Pieniny Trail (part of the E3) passes the hill on the section from Szczawnica via the Nowy Przewóz ferry, Sokolica, Czertezik, Czerteż, Bajków Groń and Zamkowa Góra, then over Ostry Wierch and Siodło to Trzy Korony; the whole section from Szczawnica takes about 4 hours, and you can return by the shorter route via the Szopka pass. Stone steps, built in the early 20th century from stones of the castle walls, lead from the trail to the ruins. From the west, from the deep ravine of the Huliński Potok, a path climbs to the ruins and ends with long stairs with handrails (75 wooden and 37 stone steps). The highest point itself is now closed to visitors and wooded.

What you can see from the summit

The top is forested, so there is no view from it; from the castle ruins you can see the Pieninki ridge. It used to be different: in the early 20th century a hermit made a path from the ruins to the summit, and in 1930 Kazimierz Sosnowski described benches and an enchanting Pieniny landscape from which the blue waters of the Dunajec showed in three places.

Nature and history

The castle was probably built in the early 1280s and is linked with Duchess Kinga, who wanted a refuge for the Poor Clares' convent of Stary Sącz. During the third Tatar invasion Kinga and the nuns did shelter here. It is one of the oldest stone castles in Poland and an example of a high-mountain refuge castle: it could hold a hundred people and several dozen soldiers, and the cliffs on the east, south and west made it almost impregnable and hard to spot from the valleys. The remains of the fortifications lie at 740–760 m, which probably makes it the highest stone castle in the Polish Carpathians. Its later history is poorly documented; most researchers think it was abandoned and destroyed in the 14th or early 15th century. Next to the ruins is the grotto of St Kinga with her statue, a place of pilgrimage.

Above the Pieniny Cave, on a ridge about 100 m high, lie the so-called “Kinga's Gardens” – lush patches of rock vegetation with lime-loving plants such as Zawadzki's chrysanthemum, alpine aster and superb pink; pale yellow corydalis and the rare Müller's helleborine also occur. The steep walls hold one of the largest stands of yew in the Pieniny. Today's beech forest grew on the site of a pine forest that burned in a two-week fire in 1915.

Safety, season and rules

The path to the ruins is short, but the steep stairs are slippery after rain and in winter; stay on marked paths and keep off the rocks – the southern wall drops about 50 m. Entry to the Pieniny National Park is free, but strict rules apply: walk only on marked trails (no climbing on rocks, no stepping onto meadows or beyond railings), stay in the park only in daytime – from an hour before sunrise to an hour after sunset – and do not bring dogs, fly drones, camp or light fires. The Dunajec ferry in Szczawnica runs only in the warm season (roughly May to October according to guides), so in winter Zamkowa Góra is easier to reach from Krościenko via the Szopka pass.

The Pieniny are covered by the mountain rescue service GOPR (Podhale group, stations in Szczawnica and Krościenko): call 985 or +48 601 100 300, or 112; installing the «Ratunek» app is a good idea.

Interesting facts

• In 1926 a bell inscribed with a prayer for peace and concord between the estates was hung by the southern cliff; the hermit rang it for the Angelus.
• Edelweiss grows by the ruins – possibly a relic of 19th-century transplanting experiments by the Tatra Society.
• Water from the spring that fed the castle cistern later came to be regarded as healing.

Photos: Andrzej Otrębski, CC BY-SA 4.0; Andrzej Otrębski, CC BY-SA 4.0; Andrzej Otrębski, napisy: Jerzy Opioła, CC BY 4.0; Jerzy Opioła, CC BY-SA 3.0; Jerzy Opioła, CC BY-SA 3.0 — Wikimedia Commons.