Szlak JelonkówAbout the project
Szlak Jelonków (the Little Deer Trail) is a joint effort of a local crafts school and a passion for programming. Since 2020, bronze sculptures of little deer have been appearing across Jelenia Góra in southwestern Poland; since 2026 you can explore them with a free guide app.
The little-deer sculptures
All 30 little deer are the work of students and teachers of the Stanisław Wyspiański School of Artistic Crafts in Cieplice Śląskie-Zdrój. The figures are cast in bronze from designs by students of the Fine Arts Lyceum, and their colourful scarves and outfits are knitted by students of the school's fashion technical college. A full list of authors is kept by the school itself – zsart.edu.pl/jelonki.
All the photographs on this site and in the app – the little deer, the panoramas, the trails – are mine, unless a particular picture says otherwise.
The mobile app and the website
I made the app and this website myself – Bartosz Bryniarski (brylka.net). Between 2020 and 2025 I taught vocational IT subjects at the very school where the deer are made, the School of Artistic Crafts in Cieplice. The idea was born during that work – a natural combination of a passion for teaching, programming and the home city.
I am also a licensed mountain guide for the Sudetes (class III), licensed by the Marshal of the Lower Silesian Voivodeship. That is where the voice-guided trails come from: the same job as in the field, only the phone does the talking.
The app is free, works with no account and no ads, collects no personal data, and its map works offline (useful in the Karkonosze Mountains, where the signal tends to disappear).
History of the trail
The first little deer were placed in the city in 2020. The project was inspired by the Wrocław dwarves – one of the most recognisable attractions of Lower Silesia. Each new little deer is usually the result of cooperation between the school and a city institution: the Jelfa pharmaceutical plant, the Karkonosze Regional Development Agency, libraries, theatres, schools.
The trail in numbers
- 30 figures scattered across the city
- 5 districts: the centre, Cieplice, Zabobrze, Sobieszów, Jagniątków
- ~26 km shortest walking route through all 30 little deer
- ~5h 15min of walking without breaks
- since 2020 – project run by the School of Artistic Crafts in Cieplice
Thanks to
- The School of Artistic Crafts in Cieplice – for 30 unique figures
- OpenStreetMap – for the open map data the app builds upon
Contact
See a factual error, have a question, or want to add something? Write to: brylka@jelenia.com
