2023-12-05 11:54:00
Silesia. It used to always smell slightly disreputable, like an unresolved past and associations of displaced people. Forever yesterday. Nowadays we often read fairytale-like things about it – about Rübezahl, Prussian castles in the Hirschberger Valley, about oak and birch forests, and the gentle low mountain range nature around the Schneekoppe.
You hear about rarely visited cultural treasures, cozy hotels, culinary delights at reasonable prices. Should we check this? Yes, we should. Especially since Silesia is not far from Germany.
To be more precise: A corner of Silesia is even in Germany, the area around Görlitz and Bad Muskau. It came to Prussia in 1815 after the Congress of Vienna and became part of the province of Lower Silesia. After 1945, when the Neisse was established as the new border with Poland, Silesia’s western tip became Saxon again.
Muskau Castle stood burned out for a long time
The most famous noblemen in Bad Muskau were the Counts Pückler, especially Prince Hermann von Pückler-Muskau, who kept a raspberry-colored castle with crazy roof decorations and an opulent garden, which, however, ruined it. In 1845 he had to sell it.
The driveway to Muskau Castle is impressive again today
Source: pa/dpa/Sebastian Kahnert
And things got worse. In 1945, the Red Army set Muskau Castle on fire. It stood there burnt out until after the fall of the Wall. Today Muskau Castle presents itself properly again. The access ramp is adorned with an armada of boxwood pots, and the well-kept two-country park is hardly recognizable.
Here you stroll past German and Polish border posts over the Neisse, on both sides a gently flowing, restored cultural landscape spreads out, including bridges and ponds with the Unesco seal of approval – as the largest English park in Central Europe.
Klitschdorf Castle in Poland is now a hotel
The route goes very casually over the Muskau road bridge into Polish Silesia; there is a cheap Polish market right at the border. The area becomes more densely treed, it goes through the forests of Lower Silesia, which, like Upper Silesia, lies above the Sudentenberg chain. The region seems very Catholic, there are statues of the Virgin Mary wrapped in ribbons in every village, as well as crucifixes and lots of stone saints.
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A worthwhile overnight stop is Klitschdorf Castle (Polish: Zamek Kliczków). A gloomy neo-Renaissance box, once owned by the Solms-Baruth family, now a hotel, and the neighboring horse cemetery still exists. The last lord of the castle was in the resistance against Hitler.
An imposing appearance from the outside with its many pointed turrets, the building appears to be a remnant of the socialist era on the inside, somewhat built up. Hearty dishes are served in the dark paneled halls; in autumn the pierogies with deer meat taste particularly good.
Historic buildings between prefabricated buildings
From here it is only 15 kilometers to Bunzlau (Bolesławiec), the Silesian pottery metropolis and birthplace of the Baroque poet Martin Opitz. Bunzlau ceramics with the typical peacock eyes and sponge decoration are still known in Germany today. After the expulsion, many Silesian potters settled in West Germany, where Bunzlau-style ceramics are still produced today.
In Bunzlau itself, Polish potters continue the old tradition. The factory outlet also offers the polka dot stoneware in new, fresh colors. Ceramic benches decorate the Bunzlau market square – like most of Silesia’s cities, it is more of a ring, the towered town hall is surrounded by a block of houses.
The famous Lower Silesian ceramics town of Bunzlau (Bolesławiec) is spruced up
Quelle: Getty Images/Henryk Sadura
Before the Hirschberg Valley there is another junction to Liegnitz (Legnica) and Löwenberg (Lwówek Śląski). Both were wonderful medieval places, but they were largely destroyed in the Second World War. The inner cities were only rebuilt in the 1960s.
Now there are only a few historic solitary buildings left here, with prefabricated buildings in between, poorly trimmed to look pseudo-old. Strange silhouettes between demolition edges, sky-storming brick church towers and the dead renovated Piast castle.
At the once Protestant Cathedral of St. Peter and Paul in Liegnitz, a figure of Luther used to rise above the portal. Now there is a Madonna there, but she is still surrounded by the German banner: “Here I stand and I can’t do anything else.” God help me. Amen. Worms 1521.”
Couples enjoy romance in the Fischbach moated castle
The rustic Silesian cuisine, some of which the Poles have adopted, promises variety and strengthening. Many menus feature Silesian potato dumplings, which are sometimes shaped like donuts.
People also like to eat roulades and Silesian Kingdom of Heaven is served. This is smoked pork belly that is cooked with a roux, baked fruit, cinnamon and lemon peel. Finally, the typical Silesian poppy seed cake with sprinkles tastes good.
The Hirschberger Valley is as lovely and light as expected. The villages and suburbs here are pretty built-up and not too romantic. The neo-Gothic water castle Fischbach (Zamek Karpniki) stands out as a true idyll. Until the Second World War it was owned by the family of Hesse and visited by many crowned heads.
Royal forgetfulness of being, perfectly renovated and furnished down to the last deer antler. There is a good restaurant, here as everywhere else the food costs about half as much as in Germany.
Many young couples enjoy their time together in candlelight or with a hot bath in the wooden tub placed between the tower and the moat – highly romantic, especially at dusk. Ducks fly past, behind the streaks of fog you can see Sněžka in the distance.
The Giant Mountains are perfect for hiking
Given the historic aristocratic residences on the Bober (Bóbr) river, one wouldn’t be tempted to compare them with the castles on the Loire in France, but the area definitely has something to offer. You can see ruins like Boberstein Castle (Zamek Bobrów), where the Hound of the Baskervilles could soon strike, and, as in Buchwald (Bukowiec), the remains of landscape parks, over which a classicist tea house towers lonely.
Boberstein Castle (Zamek Bobrów) is now just a ruin
Source: pa/ZB/Hans-Petko Teuchert
Erdmanndorf (Pałac w Mysłakowicach), the former summer palace of Prussian King Frederick William III, is still a school, and a karate poster hangs on the balcony. Lenné Park can only be glimpsed, the tower of the Schinkel Church still stands tall.
It takes imagination to dream yourself back to this historic, still-not-fully-repaired Silesian Arcadia. The undulating landscape of the Giant Mountains invites you to take a walk; it smells of autumn, leaves and mushrooms.
A kind of Neuschwanstein in Silesia
An hour further east lies Fürstenstein Castle (Zamek Książ), picturesquely between the gorge and the forest hilltop, on the outskirts of the town of Waldenburg (Wałbrzych). Fürstenstein is a harmonious mix of the Middle Ages, Baroque and Neo-Renaissance; for Poles, the most visited castle in Silesia is a kind of Neuschwanstein.
The richest German noble family once resided in hundreds of rooms in the building, which was pink at the front and heavily towered at the back, along with the Princes of Hochberg. The last lord of the castle only had an English wife, Daisy, about whom novels have long been written. The second seduced the youngest son and married him after the divorce. They had two daughters, the owner of the house died due to a heart defect in early childhood.
But by then they had largely had to give up the property. War, loss of land, and bad speculation ended the princely court. Then came the Nazis, who had forced laborers in the concentration camp hollow out the mountain and half destroy the castle, supposedly to set up quarters for Hitler. The Amber Room has already been searched for here.
There is a church hidden behind the half-timbered structure
In beautiful Schweidnitz (Swidnica), the half-timbered Church of Peace from 1657, also a world heritage site, is surprising. It was wrested from the Catholic Habsburgs (who ruled Silesia at the time) after the Peace of Westphalia for the predominantly Protestant population.
The Church of Peace in Schweidnitz (Swidnica) is a UNESCO World Heritage Site
Source: picture alliance/imageBROKER/Dirk Renckhoff
From the outside, however, the church could not resemble a church; it had to be made of perishable material. Hence the half-timbering – which fortunately proved to be durable. Inside, the church is resplendent in gold, a fair of Lutheran religious vanity! Helmut Kohl and Angela Merkel have also prayed here.
The church is embedded in a Protestant cemetery that is still somewhat preserved; most of the church grounds from the German era were destroyed or rededicated after 1945. Mossy stone skulls on the gravestones also speak of transience in Schweidnitz.
A castle hotel with a pool in an old barn
Bad Salzbrunn (Szczawno-Zdrój) with its wooden foyer and Tudor-style hotel is one of the many places of flourishing spa culture in the Giant Mountains, once as important as the spa facilities in the Bohemian spa triangle. Gerhart Hauptmann was born in Ober Salzbrunn in 1862. In Agnetendorf (Jagniątków) under the Krkonoše Mountains ridge stands the Nobel Prize winner’s Villa Wiesenstein, with a fortress on the outside and a painted hall on the inside, an expressive riot of colors through which the poet’s figures twitch.
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If you want, pay a visit to Hirschberg (Jelenia Góra). Except for the yellow Church of Grace and the glass collection in the Giant Mountains Museum, the city is rather bland. On the other hand, the nearby Stonsdorf (Pałac Staniszów), one of the most beautiful castle hotels in Silesia with a large pool in an old barn, is worthwhile.
Here you can also toast with the fruity herbal liqueur for which Stonsdorf is famous. In Germany it is produced according to an old recipe as “Echt Stonsdorfer”.
The drink was forgotten in its place of origin after 1945, but recently the lord of the castle has been producing his “Likier Staniszowski” here. The experiment was a brilliant success: the New Silesian herbal brandy can keep up with the Old Silesian original.
Suddenly Silesia is no longer a distant myth, but a very pleasant holiday reality. For example, the direct route from Berlin is only three and a half hours away by car.
Source: Infographic WELT
Tips and information
Getting there: From Berlin via the A 13/A 15, after the Forst border crossing A 18 to the Bunzlau (Bolesławiec) exit; from Saxony via the A 4 to Görlitz. From there you can drive to Hirschberg (Jelenia Góra) in just over an hour.
Accommodation: There are four recommended castle hotels in the Hirschberger Valley. The most elegant is Schloss Fischbach, double rooms from 90 euros (zamekkarpniki.pl). Stonsdorf Castle attracts with its spa, double rooms from 90 euros (schlossstonsdorf.de). Also dignified: Lomnitz Castle and Gut, double rooms from 75 euros (palac-lomnica.pl). Wernersdorf Castle has the most space, double rooms from a good 80 euros (palac-pakoszow.pl). In Schweidnitz (Świdnica), near Fürstenstein Castle, we recommend the stylishly modern “Hotel Red Baron”, double rooms from a good 80 euros (redbaronhotel.pl)
Information: polen.travel/de/regionen; talderschloesser.de
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This article was originally published in November 2020.
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