Kopa Cwila

Gazing upon Kopa Cwila, you might mistake it for a natural hill. It rises 118 meters above sea level, the tallest point in Ursynów. But Kopa Cwila holds a secret. This hill wasn’t sculpted by nature. It was built by human hands, a monument to Warsaw’s rapid expansion in the 1970s. Kopa Cwila, also known as Cwil Mound or even Cwil Mountain, began as a solution to a very practical problem. During the construction of the Ursynów district, tons of earth were excavated for foundations. Transporting this excess soil to distant landfills proved costly. A clever engineer named Henryk Cwil proposed a simple, yet ingenious solution: create a hill right here in the planned Roman Kozlowski Park. And so, truckload after truckload of earth and even damaged building prefab elements were brought to this spot, gradually forming the mound we see today. The workers, heading to the growing hill with their loads, would say “Going to Cwil’s,” a phrase that eventually morphed into the hill’s informal name. Later, this nickname became its official designation: Kopa Cwila. Kopa Cwila isn’t just a hill; it’s a time capsule of Ursynów’s birth. In the 1980s, grand plans envisioned Kopa Cwila as a winter sports paradise. A ski lift, nicknamed the “whirlpool,” was installed, along with a toboggan run. Whether the lift ever operated remains a subject of local debate. Some claim it ran for a season or two. Others insist it remained a static monument to ambition. Regardless, remnants of this era can still be found. Look closely, and you might spot traces of the toboggan run or the concrete foundation of the lift’s control booth. This artificial mountain has also played a role in Polish pop culture. The band Oddział Zamknięty filmed their music video for “Ten wasz świat” on its slopes in 1983, capturing the raw, unfinished landscape. More recently, the animated series “Blok Ekipa” featured Kopa Cwila in three episodes, further cementing its place in local lore.