Although Velká Chuchle is certainly known to the public mainly for horse races, believe me that its surroundings are also exceptional in terms of geological development and importance. We will walk along the bottom of the primeval sea and visit several interesting locations. You can get to the big Chuchle by train from Smíchov or Beroun, the Prague public transport bus also goes to the center of Chuchle.
Hvězdárna – from the train station, we head across the crossing (notice the thematic geological painting on the retaining wall next to the track to the right of the crossing: cephalopods and trilobites). The first turn to the left after the crossing – Na hvězdárně street – was once an important site of Ordovician fossils. If we are lucky, we may find the remains of typical trilobites with a perforated rim in the rubble to the left of the turn.
Cobblestones - behind the Charlotta Masaryková school, at the end of Nad akáty street, we will walk along the road into the forest to the information sign regarding the nearby quarries: Žákova and Čulíkova. Until 1940, both of these quarries were used for mining and manual production of paving stones, 5 people produced 3-4 wagons of them per week. Black limestone with a natural cube-like resolution perfectly met the technical requirements for manual processing.
Žák's Quarry - On the left side of the road, there is an inactive limestone quarry, sometimes called Eurypter's Quarry. During limestone mining, a number of exceptional finds of the Acutiramus genus were found here. In addition to these rare finds, remains of water lilies, bivalves and numerous cephalopods can be found here in abundance.
Pacold's limestone - Today, the reconstructed exceptional building with four chimneys can be seen at the end of Velká Chuchla. The first reports date from 1880, but it will certainly be older. It was in operation until the Second World War. The later long-term deterioration was ended by a demanding reconstruction in 2004-2005. The beautiful technical monument is definitely worth a visit.
Homolka – Across from the Pacolda limestone, we can visit an exceptional geologically world-important site - the Homolka Nature Reserve. Paleontologists here in the rock wall distinguished d is one of the most significant geological outcrops in the territory of our state. The geological profile begins with the upper part of the Požar formation (sub-valley) and continues with the Lochkov and Prague formations.
