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ul. Parkowa, Trzebinia
Ostra Góra is a small woodland reserve in the Trzebinia commune, in the western part of the Lesser Poland Voivodeship, at the edge of the Kraków-Częstochowa Upland. It was established in 1959 to preserve a natural fragment of Carpathian beech forest that survived here despite the strongly industrial character of the surroundings. The protected area covers just over seven hectares.
The name of the reserve comes from the Ostra Góra hill, which rises to 438 metres above sea level. Its distinctive feature is a narrow, sharply drawn ridge, rarely found in this part of Lesser Poland. The slopes are steep and stony, so the walk calls for comfortable shoes and can be slippery after rain.
The greatest curiosity is an imposing beech tree estimated to be more than four hundred years old. In the forest floor you can recognise wood violet, liverleaf, bugle, deadly nightshade and the rare red helleborine orchid. Traces of old defensive walls also hide in the shade of the trees, today heavily overgrown and visible only to an attentive eye.
This is a suggestion for a short trip into the quiet of the forest rather than a full day of sightseeing. The ecosystem of the reserve took shape largely because people gave up former ways of using the land here, such as grazing sheep or removing forest litter. Visitors keep to the marked paths and do not leave them, because the undergrowth is very sensitive to trampling. The reserve is at its best in spring, when the first species of the forest floor come into bloom.
