Day 13 – Piszkowice and old spa towns

 According to the data of the Polish Ministry of Health, there are 45 spa towns in Poland, and 11 of them are located in Lower Silesia.The status of a spa town is granted to places which have unique, natural mineral reservoirs or curative properties thanks to their local climate. In the Klodzko Valley, there are three very popular spas – Kudowa Zdroj, Duszniki Zdroj and Polanica Zdroj (zdrój in Polish is a spring). We visited the latter two.

These three resorts have been entered into the Polish cultural heritage register because of their priceless 19th-century buildings and urban layout. They share a rich reservoir of therapeutic mineral waters. Polanica has the longest history – the medicinal value of local mineral waters was discovered back in the late 16th century by Jesuits. 


In Duszniki-Zdrój an annual Chopin Festival takes place every August, and it was in full swing when we visited. That’s why we were so surprised how subdued the town was. In spite of the festival, it felt positively dead. There was a stand in the spa park selling festival concert tickets (Phil remarked how expensive they were!) and promotional merchandise (also expensive). We stopped at the pijalnia (mineral water pumping facility), which is architecturally lovely, but they charge you for drinking the water and for filling bottles. Years ago, this was free. Pijalnia was almost empty… We also visited the church of St. Peter and Paul (1708-30) to see its unique ambona/pulpit in the shape of a whale, and the Museum of Papermaking. At lunchtime, Phil wanted pierogi so we stopped in a few restaurants searching for them to no avail. 




To continue the search, we went to Polanica. What a contrast! It was hopping. The park and the main drag were full of vacationers, vendors and  activities. And we found pierogi! 







From there we drove to Klodzko, the largest town of the region. It was established as a settlement in the 10th century, and is one of the oldest towns in Poland, having been granted city rights in 1233. Culturally and traditionally a part of Bohemia, administratively it has been a part of Silesia since 1763. For its historical monuments it is sometimes referred to as "Little Prague". Our intent was to visit the Klodzko Fortress, a unique fortification complex that was one of the biggest strongholds in Prussian Silesia. Now, together with an extensive network of tunnels and its underground labyrinth, it is one of the biggest attractions in Kłodzko. For that reason, it is almost impossible to find parking close to the entrance. We parked on the other side of the huge fortress and I (Bo) and Phil embarked on a walk around it to find the entrance (Al refused to go), but after walking for about 20 minutes, the entrance was nowhere to be seen so we turned around. Then we drove to the city center, found the entrance but seeing the hundreds of steps we’d have to climb, we gave up and just explored the city. The most iconic sight is the stone St. John’s bridge constructed before 1390. This Gothic bridge is said to be an inspiration for the famous and much larger Charles bridge in Prague. 

















In the evening – back to Kamieniec palace for dinner.

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