The paper is focused on the palaeographic development of the western part of the Holy Cross Mountains, Poland, during the maximum extent of the Sanian 2 (MIS 12) ice sheet and its retreat. The studies were based on archival cartographic data, coupled with new lithological and petrographic analyses of limni- and fluvioglacial sands, i.e., grain-size composition, quartz grain morphology and heavy mineral analysis, as well as analysis of the erratic material of tills. The results confirm the regional variability of the erratic material in the Sanian 2 tills and point to the long-term development of fluvioglacial sands cover documenting cold climate conditions. They also evidence that the western part of the Holy Cross Mountains was the area where two oppositely directed ice sheet lobes (Radoszyce and Sandomierz) advanced during the Sanian 2 Glaciation and that deglaciation of the area took place in two stages. Huge quantities of meltwater released at that time contributed to the intensification of earlier initiated karst phenomena, as well as filling of the existing caves by fluvioglacial sands.

Loess is an important component of cave deposits. Loess and loess-like strata in caves and rock shelters may serve as stratigraphic correlative units and paleoclimate indicators. For the Polish Jura (southern Poland), one of the key regions of cave deposits studies in Europe, the published information concerning the stratigraphic importance of loess is limited to the sequences from around the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). In this paper, a review of the archival data about loess deposits situated below the LGM strata in caves and rock shelters of the Polish Jura is presented. The paper discusses the occurrence, lithology, stratigraphy, chronology and paleoecology of the pre-LGM cave loess. The most important sites of the pre-LGM cave loess in the region include: Biśnik Cave, Nietoperzowa Cave, Mamutowa Cave, and Ciemna Cave (only the outer zones). The loess strata in these sites correlate with cold Marine Isotope Stages (MIS): mid-3, 4, 5b–d, 6, and possibly 10. They represent all the main facies of cave loess: typical eolian loess, colluviated loess-like deposits, loess with bedrock debris, and loams of complex grain-size composition but with the predominance of a loess component. Stratigraphic correlations with loess-paleosol sequences are proposed.