Dworek Gościnny (Guest House) in Szczawnica

When the rebuilding of Dworek Gościnny in Szczawnica began in 2008, no plans of the building survived. The architects had an old postcard showing a man standing in front of the entrance – they assumed he was about 180 cm tall and used him to calculate the dimensions of the whole building. That is how the wooden “Pieniny salon” returned to Szczawnica's Upper Park: from 1884 it had been the heart of the spa's social life, until it burned to the ground in 1962.

History: the spa's drawing room

The foundations were laid in 1875 by Józef Szalay, the founder of Szczawnica spa. The upper part was built from 1882 by the Academy of Learning in Kraków, and the building opened in 1884. Its design is attributed to Kraków architect Maciej Moraczewski. It went by many names: Dworzec Gościnny, Kursalon, Kurhaus, or simply the Pieniny Salon.

The larch-wood building with its shingle roof housed a ballroom for 500 people with galleries for spectators and musicians, a theatre hall with a stage, a restaurant and café, a piano room, a reading room, billiards, a hairdresser and shops. Until 1928 it also held the studio of Awit Szubert, the painter and photographer of the Tatra Mountains. More than a hundred guests at a time could take coffee on the arcaded veranda.

The stage saw Helena Modrzejewska (known abroad as Modjeska), Mieczysław Frenkiel, Aleksander Zelwerowicz, Ludwik Solski, Juliusz Osterwa and Stefan Jaracz. Writers Maria Konopnicka, Henryk Sienkiewicz, Bolesław Prus, Kazimierz Przerwa-Tetmajer and Adam Asnyk gave readings here; according to tradition, Asnyk wrote his poem “Och, gdybym był młodszy, kochanie” (“Oh, if I were younger, darling”) in this building.

Fire and return

In 1909 Count Adam Stadnicki became the owner. In 1948 the communist authorities nationalised the spa together with the building, and in 1959–1962 it housed the first collections of the Pieniny Museum. On 20 October 1962 fire broke out – the wooden structure burned completely, leaving only the masonry foundations.

The chance came in 2005, when the Mańkowski family, Stadnicki's heirs, recovered the spa estate. Reconstruction ran from 2008 to 2011, based on archive photographs. The new building is about one third larger than the original, but regional wood carving and painted ornaments were preserved. It lies on the Wooden Architecture Route of Małopolska.

What to see

From outside it is a fine example of Swiss-style timber architecture: little galleries, porches, dormers and turrets. Inside, classic chandeliers and theatrical drapes frame the tall windows. Today the building is home to the Pieniny Event Centre:

• an auditorium with automatically retracting seating and a modular stage,
• the Jazz Bar for about 100 people, with a glass wall opening onto a terrace for 110 guests surrounded by larches,
• concerts, plays, balls, conferences and family celebrations.

Tripto tip

You will mostly see the interior when attending an event, so check the programme on the centre's website and plan an evening concert. A walk through the Upper Park to view the façade takes 15–30 minutes. Address: Park Górny 7, tel. +48 729 162 570; there is free parking. Photograph the building from a park path at some distance – only then do you see the rhythm of turrets and galleries recreated from that old postcard.