Piasek: Oak Avenue, cycling route and local history

Piasek offers several specific points of interest for planning a trip: a marked cycling route, a protected natural monument and local cultural sites. When choosing a destination for a hotel stay, you can first consider whether cycling, landscapes or local history is your main focus.

Cycling route and arrival

The marked red cycling route between Katowice and Pszczyna passes through Piasek. From Piasek, it continues towards Pszczyna along field paths and residential streets. The route is considered not difficult and suitable for family outings. Piasek station on Dworcowa Street is accessible to people with reduced mobility. Operating details may change, so check the latest information before your trip.

Another named route is Droga Książęca. It also passes through Piasek, but runs from the castle in Pszczyna to the hunting lodge in Promnice near Kobiór. The cycling route and Droga Książęca therefore have different stated destinations: one continues towards Pszczyna, while the other connects the castle with the hunting lodge.

Oak Avenue and the landscape

Oak Avenue is a protected natural monument within the area covered by the local development plan for Piasek. It was designated a natural monument by a decision dated 17 September 1981. Several dozen English oaks form the avenue in the central part of the Sołectwo Piasek, along the railway line. The tree species, location and protected status give the avenue a distinctive place in the local landscape.

For visitors interested in trees and protected landscape features, Oak Avenue is a different point of reference from the marked cycling route: here, the oaks and their protected status are the focus, while the route places Piasek within a longer journey between two cities.

Crosses, church and sports facilities

At 113 Katowicka Street stands a wooden cross with a figure of Christ cast in concrete. Near 65 Katowicka Street is a lastriko cross on a natural stone base, with a niche and a figure of Saint John Sarkander. Its inscription reads “Paul and Marie Kania 1914”. The church in Piasek has stained-glass windows dating from 1997. These details differ in material, design and date, and give a specific impression of the religious markers in the village.

Those who also include sports facilities in their plans will find the MORiS Pszczyna “Orlik” sports complex at 61 Katowicka Street and the KS Czarni-Piasek football pitch at 22 Słowackiego Street. Availability and access conditions may change; check the conditions before making specific use of the facilities.

Pszczyna as a wider travel context

In the wider destination of Pszczyna, the Historic Park covers 156 hectares and includes the Castle Park, Dworcowy Park and Dziką Promenada. Dziką Promenada is home to a well-maintained golf course and the Pokazowa Zagroda Żubrów, a show enclosure for European bison. The ten-hectare site has enclosures and paths from which visitors can also observe fallow deer, red deer, roe deer and pheasants.

Other points of reference in Pszczyna include the Old Town, with its medieval urban layout, and Piastowska Street, the main pedestrian zone. The castle museum represents residences once inhabited by European nobility. Around 80 percent of its original furnishings from around the turn of the 20th century have been preserved.

The Silesian Press Museum offers further insight into cultural history: its exhibition presents the history of the Silesian press from its beginnings to 1939; the museum also collects historic printing presses and printing equipment. The Izba Telemanna displays historic musical instruments, including an 18th-century positive organ. The Zagroda Wsi Pszczyńskiej open-air museum in Pszczyna is included in the Silesian Wooden Architecture Trail as part of the Pszczyna Loop.

Near the castle are the Prince's Stables, which were taken over by the castle museum in June 2013 and regularly host exhibitions on various subjects. Baroque concerts have been held in the Mirror Hall of the castle museum since 1979 under the name “Wieczory u Telemanna”. Pszczyna thus offers a distinct cultural context alongside Piasek’s cycling and landscape attractions.

Discover more destinations: Studzienice, Kobior, Suszec, Brzeźce, Wisła Mała, Pielgrzymowice, Łąka, Pszczyna.

Back to the wider travel overview: Pszczyna.