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Brama Krakowska (Kraków Gate), Ojców National Park, Poland
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Krakowska Gate is one of several rocky gates in the Ojcowski National Park. It is located in the Prądnik Valley and closes the outlet of the Gorge behind the Krakow Gate to this valley. It is a classic example of rock gates . Its name derives from the fact that in the past, a trade route from Kraków to Silesia ran through the Prądnik Valley. In 1928, a commemorative plaque was built on it on the occasion of the construction of a new road from Kraków to Ojców, running along the bottom of the Prądnik Valley, but due to the protests of naturalists, the plaque was removed in 1935.
The columns of the Krakowska Gate are made of blocks of Jurassic rock limestone , resistant to weathering , about 15 m high, the left column is higher. The gate was created as a result of erosion processes, which more intensively occurred in the joint cracks through which water flowed. In further stages, karst phenomena and mechanical weathering were added. In the rocks of the gate, planes of vertical cracks and horizontal surfaces of limestone bedding can be seen. In the left column of the gate there is a picture of Our Lady of Częstochowa.
Two yew trees (planted) grow next to the Krakowska Gate . The rocks forming the gate are covered with a xerothermic grassland dominated by pale fescue , and there are also numerous colonies of lichens giving it black, white or brick-red colors in places. In the past, by one of the rocks of the gate, there was a spring that drained the valley behind the gate. Later, its mouth was enclosed and moved below the road, and the guides named it the Source of Love
At a distance of about 100 m from the Krakowska Gate (in the direction of Ojców) there is a large shelter called the Cow Cave by the road running through the Prądnik Valley
In 1989, a new species of prosobranchial snail was discovered near the Krakowska Gate. It was called the unassuming paternal Falniowskia neglectissima . It is probably endemic and due to its rarity it is included in the Polish Red Book of Animals.
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