Easy hikes and walks around Karczew

Kapliczka – a small cult building, erected along roads or at crossroads for votive, thanksgiving, ritual purposes etc., in its simplest form a wooden box with a picture or sculpture

The “Baza Torfy” educational center in Karczew is located near the “Na Torfach” nature reserve within the Czesław Łaszek Mazovian Landscape Park and is housed in a building of an over 100-year-old forester's lodge. Educational activities at “Baza Torfy” have been conducted since 1995.

Jewish cemetery in Karczew-Anielin (colloquially called the cemetery in Anielin) to distinguish it from the actual cemetery in Karczew) – a cemetery founded in the 19th century. During World War II, it was devastated by the Germans, but on an area of 1.7 hectares, about 900 matzevot have been preserved. Jews permanently residing in Otwock were usually buried in the cemetery in Karczew, and those who were patients of Otwock hospitals and sanatoriums – in the cemetery in Karczew-Anielin. Among others, the writer Urke Nachalnik, shot by the Germans in October 1939, was buried in the cemetery, but the exact location of his grave is unknown. During the PRL period, many tombstones were destroyed, graves were plundered, and a high-voltage line was run through the cemetery. In recent years, the Social Committee for the Memory of Jews from Otwock and Karczew has been carrying out cleanup work on the cemetery grounds. In August 2007, heavy boulders began to be laid along the cemetery borders. This made it possible to fence off half of its area.

Bagno Całowanie – one of the largest lowland peatland complexes in Mazovia, with an area of 1200 ha, located within the Mazovian Landscape Park, southeast of Warsaw, in the Vistula River valley. The peatland area extends for 15 km, reaching a width of approx. 3 km

Bagno Całowanie – one of the largest low peatland complexes in Mazovia with an area of 1200 ha, located within the Mazowiecki Landscape Park, southeast of Warsaw, in the Vistula valley. The peatland area extends for 15 km, reaching a width of approx. 3 km.

The park's landscape is formed by pine-covered dune chains and the marshy depressions separating them, often filled with peat.

Start of wooden footbridges at Bagno Całowanie

As we read on the information board, the shrine was erected in 2004 on the initiative of the residents of Karczew, and the wooden figure was consecrated on November 17, 2004. For over twenty years, the sculpture has been welcoming walkers, cyclists, and all forest lovers, becoming a place for reflection, silent prayer, and contemplation. This depiction holds a special place in Polish tradition. Christ the Sorrowful was one of the most frequently recurring motifs in roadside shrines. It is in such simple, forest and field corners that one can most strongly see how spirituality, folk art, and landscape have intertwined over the centuries into a single narrative. The author of the sculpture is Stefan Lisowski (1928–2010) – an artist and sculptor, also associated with Mazovia. According to the board, he was the initiator of the "Kapliczka przydrożna" (Roadside Shrine) series of works and wanted to restore the motif of the wooden shrine to the Mazovian landscape. The Karczew figure is one such work – made from a single piece of wood. This is one of those places that one can pass by without knowing its history. Yet, it holds local memory, a beautiful tradition, and the trace of human work, which aimed to leave something lasting behind.