Bewitched with the mysterious and charming place of the Mount Picket, we return to our vehicle and we go straight c.a. 2 km. Soon we enter the village of Kamionek, for the first time mentioned in 1571 as Kamenekh in a document of the Opolskie prince Jan Dobry, the village tithing to the collegiate church of St. Crux in Opole ( today’s cathedra). Later, in 1845 the name Mały Kamien oder Kamionek was registered. Probably it was created in contrast comparing it to the neighboring village, a lot greater than it –charmfully called Kamień Wielki.
Going with the Zakrzowska street, on the second crossing we turn right and we go with the pavement way. We leave the built-up area. Soon we get to the road junctions. Here we turn left and we get to a marble- cross with a little passion. Erstwhile, a wooden cross stood there with an image of crucified Jesus painted on a sheet metal. When wood of the cross rotted, farmers from Kamionek founded the new, marble- cross. From there we move left to the centre of the village. There is a pond with a legendary well in the middle and near- a brick-and- wrought-lime stone chapel of Mother of God of Incessant Help from 1937, serving local people as a belfry. It was built on a place of the old, baroque- little chapel to the honor of God’s Mother. It was much bigger than the previous one. With a ridge roof and a quadrilateral little tower inside of which two bells were placed, the first- big new one and the second- little one from the old little chapel. 12 benches without back were placed, for three persons each of them. At the central place, besides an altar with a picture of God’s Mother of Baker, two figures were placed at the side: an old baroque- folk wooden sculpture of Saint Jan Nepomucen and a newer plaster- figure of the Heart of Lord Jesus. A curiosity of that chapel became– made in the 50s - a feretrum (portable two-side altar) with a picture of St. Jacek on a background of burning Kiev, while at the back with a picture of God’s Mother of Fatima. In 2003 inhabitants of the village, led by the dean priest Herman Piechota completely changed the look of the chapel and the interior decorations. They left one tower in the middle and built the side aisles.
However, the oldest monument in Kamionek is a little well, being situated on the peninsula in the centre of a pond of the village. It was renovated thanks to an initiative of the local leaders of the operational program Renovation of Village. Inhabitants through hundred of years drew the drinking water from there. A legend is also connected with the well.
Therefore, during the incursion of Tartars in the XIII century the population of Kamionek did not want enemies stopping longer in their village. Because of that, they covered the well with the great lime stone, and said to Tatars that they drew water from the Odra River far situated from the village. It brought invaders to fury, which sorely revenged on the local population, burning their houses and slaughtering them. When new settlers moved to the village, they did not know about the existence of the old well. Some hot summer it lacked water in a local pond. People had to bring it from Kamień, while for animals from the Odra River. Desperate inhabitants went for advice to Franciscan Fathers on the Mount St. Anna. They advised them to go with imploring procession for water to wonderful, with famous for mercies well and the pilgrimage church of God’s Mother in Ujazd. On that day, when some went on the pilgrimage, the others took away dried up mud from the pond. They asked for help a chimney sweep passing that way. When he struck for the first time with an axe, a thud was heard. All they began to rummage there. Soon, they found the gigantic lime stone. When they removed it, a timbered well appeared before their eyes with life-giving water. Their joy was great. Thenceforward, every year on 02 July inhabitants of Kamionek go to the thankful pilgrimage to Studzionka near Ujazd.
In the middle of the village at Szkolna Street, in a niche of the wall of a private estate there is a little chapel, once with a figure of God’s Mother, today a cross with a figure of Jesus placed at the height of 1 m over ground with a characteristic frontage. You can also admire a building of an old school, rebuilt after it was closed onto The Welfare Center. At the way turning from Kamionek and Gogolin to Kamień, on a little square before a forest you can meet picture of St. Joseph with a little roof, peaked on a wooden pedestal. Earlier, it stood at a field- way to Górażdże. There in 1945 , when Soviet- armies liberated Gogolin and neighboring villages, an inhabitant of Kamionek Józef Mertas in the bestial manner was murdered by Russians (one gouged him eyes). After the war, due to exploitation of quarries in Górażdże and disforestation, St. Joseph was moved into the present place. The short stone- thankful cross from l970 could be interesting, put in a garden, on a private estate, at Polna Street, near the turn from Gogolińska Street.
You can also get to Kamionek with a Poviat way, joining Gogolin with Tarnów Opolski. Then, on a crossing you should turn right from the main road and go directly to the village
