11. The Old Quarry by the Cement Plant

The quarry once served as a source of high‑quality limestone for the Radotín cement plant. To the right of the dead‑end street, the remains of a concrete loading ramp can still be seen. Cement was originally transported from the quarries to the plant by a narrow‑gauge railway. The old cement works stood until the 1960s on the site of today’s housing estate in the very centre of Radotín. A new plant was built in 1961, and it remains in operation today. The railway has completely disappeared; the only reminder is the local street name U Drážky (“By the Little Railway”).

The left part of the quarry contains grey Dvorce–Prokop limestones, rich in fossils—especially trilobites and cephalopods. The right part, towards the spring, exposes older black limestones and shales of the Lochkov Formation, from which paving stones were once hand‑cut near Kosoř.

Quarry with the original cement railway Photo: Archive of the Radotín Chronicle Committee

Skiing on Homolka, with the old quarry in view Photo: Archive of the Radotín Chronicle Committee

Tail shield of the trilobite Odontochile hausmanni Photo: Archive of Štěpán Rak

Tail shield of Spiniscutellum umbelliferum from the Lochkov layers of the Radotín rocks Photo: Archive of Štěpán Rak

Radotín Valley from above – to the right of the cement plant lies the Radotínské skály Nature Monument; behind it, hidden in the ravine, the Orthoceras Quarry

Přední Mašek Mill, today the new cement plant. In the background the hill with the quarry where you are standing Photo: Archive of the Radotín Chronicle Committee

Do not enter beneath the rock face, where unstable limestone blocks may fall. It is strictly forbidden to chip the rock or extract fossils from the layers.