Attractions and Places To See around Puszcza Bukowa - Top 20

This artificial grotto is unique in Poland, as no similar structures are known in Poland or even Europe. It was built in 1888 at the behest of Albert Eduard Toepffer, owner of the nearby chalk mine and Portland cement factory "Stern," and son of the factory's founder, Gustav Adolf Toepffer. Along with the grotto, a reinforced concrete arch was built, situated next to the concrete arch built on this site in 1880. Both arches, standing parallel, formed the foundation for the added pagoda-shaped pavilion. Both arches had the same span and height, but the newer arch, made of a more modern and durable material, had a cross-sectional area approximately ten times smaller. Both structures supported the same weight, thus emphasizing the innovative nature of the new construction method. The pagoda served as an orchestra pit for dances and balls held here. Neither the pagoda nor the younger arch survived to this day – they were dismantled due to poor technical condition at the turn of the 1970s and 1980s. The interior of the cave replicated natural limestone caves, with stalactites, stalagmites, and stalagnates. Inside the cave, there is a staircase that once led to the winter garden located above the cave. Until 2012, the cave housed a restaurant. Today, it houses the Szczecin Adventure Association "Za horyzont," which occasionally opens the cave to visitors.

A former chalk and marl mine operated by the nearby "Stern" Portland cement factory, founded in 1862 and owned by the Toepffer family. In 1925, a sudden flood of groundwater through a layer of permeable sand led to the quarry's opening. The quarry quickly filled with water. People were immediately evacuated. The quarry was flooded. Emerald Lake was created, which owes its color and name to the high calcium carbonate content in the water and the reflection of light from the chalk bed. In good weather, railway wagons and even workers' tools can still be seen at the bottom of the lake. A concrete bridge, part of the railway track used to transport chalk output to the nearby cement plant, still stands near the lake today.

The Heart Boulder, also known as the Mill Stone, is an erratic. Made of granite, its shape resembles a heart. It is entered in the register of natural monuments. It is also colossal in terms of size: impressive dimensions: circumference 14.5 m, and length over 4 m.

A great place for mtb. It reminds me a lot of the Tricity Landscape Park from where I live.

It is proven that the hills on which the Forest is located were created as a result of the ice sheet that once existed here, or commonly known as a glacier. Numerous erratic boulders were moved along with the glacier from the areas of today's Scandinavia. Therefore, one of the erratic boulders was named after the glacier and the place where it probably comes from - Swedish Stone. It is a pink-gray, granoplastic erratic boulder (plagioclase-biotite gneiss) with a pegmatite vein, 910 cm in circumference and 180 m high, with deep frost cracks. The boulder is located on a small hill near Szwedzki Bruk (Chojnowska Road) about a kilometer south of Szwedzki Młyn. You can get there by following the green trail from Lake Szmaragdowe, or the red trail and then the green trail from the estate. Bukowy (having previously visited the Chojna stronghold and Szwedzki Młyn).

If you go to the Polish Baltic coast, you can take a small detour straight to the lake, just 15 km after the border of Germany - Pl podjuche exit, then the lake is directly on the right in the forest after a few km !!!

A walk around the lake is definitely worth it!

The place has probably had much better days...