A church wall, a stone pillar, or the pavement beneath our feet – we usually pass them by without much notice. However, pupils from Ján Kupecký Primary School and Na bielenisku Primary School stopped during their walks through Pezinok to discover the world of inanimate nature right in places they knew well.

The route led the children to the Church of the Transfiguration of the Lord, the Marian Column, the Klopačka (Mining Knocker), and the Pezinok city walls. New discoveries also awaited them at the Slovenská sporiteľňa building, the Eugen Suchoň Primary School of Art, the Parish Church, and the House of Culture. Familiar buildings were momentarily transformed into a textbook whose pages they could examine up close.

The children learned to identify rocks directly in the field – comparing their color and structure, noticing differences, and getting to know, for example, granite and the minerals that compose it: quartz, feldspar, and mica.

That was the charm of these walks. They did not have to travel far to explore nature – they discovered it in their own city. The stones they had previously passed without notice suddenly gained a name and revealed their diversity. The walks thus awakened curiosity and drew attention to the importance of inanimate nature, which is a part of our daily lives.

The educational tours “Stones Around Us” were organized by the Little Carpathians Geopark on the occasion of International Geodiversity Day. They took place as part of the CoDe MoRe project, in which the Little Carpathians Geopark acts as a partner and the city of Pezinok as the lead partner.