Department of Geoenvironmental Research

RECREATIONAL CENTRE IN SZYMBARK

The Szymbark Recreational Centre is located in the Beskid Niskid Mts. (West Carpathians, Poland) in the Ropa river valley - this being attached to the Szymbark Research Station of the Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization PAS. On the fenced area of 5ha, you will find natural forest park and several facilities; among these is a beautiful larch wood manor house from the 19th century, which was recently renovated.

The Recreational Centre has in total 60 accommodation places (beds) available in 1-4 person rooms as well as with a full board. Two separate, heated buildings with a large club room, as well as with a spacious dining room, make it possible to take in throughout an entire year either individual people, tourists, or organized groups of various kinds (conferences, workshops, tourist rallies, summer and winter camp groups, boarding school in the country used for school trips, celebrations and parties).

The Szymbark Recreational Center has additionally: a spacious car park, volleyball and basketball courts, a bonfire place and an ancient shaded linden tree, the so-called “Lipa Groblewskich” that has a magical properties that were praised centuries ago by sixteenth-century famous Polish poet Jan Kochanowski. In a close distance there are available useful places: a grocer’s shop open till late at night, a pharmacy, and a health centre - situated in the neighborhood.

Mountainous surroundings of Szymbark are characterized by a mild climate, abounding with not very challenging walks. Trekking across numerous touristic paths, one may visit interesting and unique, at the national scale, monuments and tourist attractions. In the area, you may repeatedly come across places bearing names associated with “ropa”, that is, “oil” in English, which points to the fact that these Carpathian areas abound with petroleum. What is interesting, these areas are famous for the world beginnings of the petroleum industry – here Ignacy Łukaszewicz, Polish pharmacist, pioneered the use of kerosene for lighting by devising a kerosene lamp. The social past of that region of the Beskid Niski Mts. is, also, associated with the Lemko ethnic group characterized by shepherd’s culture and Eastern Orthodox architecture in the form of beautiful small wooden Orthodox churches. Near Gorlice in 1915 a full scale military offensive was launched that cost a lot of blood – as a result, more than 20,000 soldiers lost their lives. Shortly after the battle, the Austrian military administration established on these areas several hundred multi-ethnic cemeteries with diverse architecture, which form unique monuments in lasting memory of that event. There are open-air ethnographic museums and other kinds of museums, located in Szymbark, Gorlice, Libusza, Biecz and Bóbrka, thanks to which we may get familiar with different aspects of the past.

Spiritual needs must be accompanied by active recreation, which will be no problem due to a wide number of facilities that are provided for within a 20km reach from Szymbark.

Access map

List of prices:
Price of accommodation:
Room with a bathroom – 35 PLN/person
Room with washbasin – 20 PLN/person
Childeren below age of 6 – half of the accommodation price
Meals:
Breakfast - 11 PLN
Lunch - 16 PLN
Supper - 11 PLN

dr Witold Bochenek- station manager

phone/fax (48-18) 35-13-170

e-mail: Witold.Bochenek@zg.pan.krakow.pl