Krynica Zdrój lies in the heart of the Beskid Sądecki Mountains. The ‘Pearl of the Polish Spas’ saw its heyday as a fashionable health resort already in the 1850s, and was then simply a place to go.
Today, it is a place where past meets the present. Where memories meet nostalgia. Krynica is truly a sentimental spa, thanks to its landmarks like:
- the Old Health Resort (Stary Dom Zdrojowy),
- the New Health Resort (Nowy Dom Zdrojowy),
- the Old Mineral Bath (Stare Łazienki Mineralne),
- the New Mineral Bath (Nowe Łazienki Mineralne),
- the pump room,
- the concert bowl,
- or late-19th-century houses, with graceful names like ‘Hungarian Crown’, ‘Scytheman’, ‘White Rose’, ‘White Eagle’, ‘Vistula’.
The list of the spa’s VIP guests is long. Its springs (discovered 200 years ago!), treatment opportunities (mud packs, mineral baths), trekking routes and social life were enjoyed by great writers like Aleksander Fredro, Maria Konopnicka or Władysław Reymont, or painters like Jan Matejko or Stanisław Wyspiański, or statesmen like Józef Pilsudski… One of them was also Jan Kiepura, a great singer and the owner of the ‘Patria’ Villa, who now ‘sings’ from a pedestal in front of the Spa Theatre (Teatr Zdrojowy). There was also Nikifor. A laughing stock of Krynica during his lifetime, he is now a recognized artist and the town’s most prominent publicity asset.
Many of them have left some trace. Artur Grottger sculpted a figure of Our Lady of Grace, and placed it in a local forest (1864); Jan Ignacy Kraszewski is reminded by small bench; Nikifor has its own museum in a blue villa called “Romanowka”, and a statute at the feet of the Park Mountain (Gora Parkowa), where he sits with a dog and a suitcase at his side, and with an inseparable brush in his hand.
The present-day guests come here either for spa treatment or winter sports – the latter are really numerous in winter.
The highest mountain in the area is Jaworzyna (1114 m [3655 ft]), with a gondola lift access. There are also drag lifts, button lifts and pistes. The Park Mountain has a funicular access and a piste for children called ‘Kubusiowy Stok’. There is also a tobogan run and an ice hall with an all-season skating rink; the hall also hosts hockey games.
“If you can’t afford Krynica, go abroad” – the pre-war slogan is still popular with the local population.
www.krynica.eu /English/
