Ślęża

Ślęża (latin: Monte Silentii, in 1945-1948 Sobótka, German. Zobtenberg) - the highest mountain massif of Ślęża and the whole Sudeten Foreland, rising to a height 718 m above mean sea level. Despite the low altitude, the massif has an impressive appearance due to a significant height relative over 500 m. Ślęża belongs to the Crown of Polish Mountains and the Crown Sudetenland.

To the top of Ślęża, we went from the town Sobótka. First we was walking  along the red trail, then it combined in the middle of the road with the yellow trail. The whole trip to Ślęża and back took us about 3 hours. The route is pleasant, but we walked in the light rain from time to time.

The name probably comes up from the word Slavic  "ślęg" which means swampy place and often shrouded in fog. Ślęg word is related to the specific climate prevailing here. Seclusion massif, with significant differences in relative height (approx. 500 m) meant that the climate is characterized by a relatively large amount of rainfall.

Beautiful on the background of clear sky, terrible during storms was in past centuries a place of pagan religious indigenous tribes, considered the "home of gods" - Silesian Olympus. The origins of worship dates was in the Bronze Age (700 r. BC) and the fall of falls at the beginning of the Christianization of these areas in the X and XI.

Today Ślęża is a place massively visited throughout the year, acting the perfect vantage point to the Sudeten (especially the Owl Mountains) and the Silesian Lowland with the nearby Lake Mietkowski and somewhat distant Wroclaw. On the top of Ślęża is:

• Church 1852
• shelter name Roman Zmorski 1908
• RTCN Ślęża - Radio Broadcasting Centre Ślęża 1958
• Millennium cross of granite erected in 2000
• reinforced concrete tower built shortly before World War II
• granite sculpture of the iconic "bear"
• fragments of the fourteenth-century castle walls