Content

Chałupki

The greatest attraction in village Chalupki is a protected natural area – border meanders of Odra, which is in the programme Natura 2000. Several important groups of rare flora are situated here – for example mead woods with alder-trees, ash-trees, then willow and poplar woods and fragments of wet meadows. Over 120 kinds of plants are confirmed here. Beavers, otters, rare kinds of butterflies and also endangered kinds of beetles are living here. A kingfi sher river build its nests in the rents of riversides made by river erosion. An instructional Polish – Czech path is situated in the territory of these meanders. By the river you can find a Baroque palace built in 1682on the grounds of a medieval fortress called once “Bartuswerde”. Its originally defensive character is confi rmed with rests of water moats and medieval fortifi cations. Above the entrance you can admire a family coat-of-arms of the former owners – the family of wealthy Jewish bankers the Rotschilds. There was an international border check-point by this palace. A relic from the time there has been a border bridge, it was built in 1899 and it was once called “the anniversary bridge of Emperor Frank Joseph. By the bridge a pub was situated in the end of the 19th century. A building of train station from the half of the 19th century is worth to see, too. It was built on the occasion of the start of working the first train connection between Prussia and Austria over Ratiborz – Chalupki in 1847.