Hala Boracza

Hala Boracza is a grassy saddle at around 860 m in the Żywiec Beskids, above the villages of Żabnica and Milówka – and on it stands a PTTK mountain hut with a history unlike any other in these mountains. It was built by the Jewish sports club "Makkabi" from Bielsko, and after a fire in 1932 it was rebuilt as the most modern mountain hut in Poland, with electric light in every room. From Żabnica-Skałka you can walk up in just over an hour, and six marked trails meet here. ("Hala" is the local word for a high mountain pasture.)

History: the Makkabi hut

In the 1920s the ski section of the Makkabi club in Bielsko was looking for its own base in the mountains, and chose the then little-visited Żywiec Beskids. Around 1925 a small wooden building on a stone base went up. One larger room served as a dining room by day and a dormitory for a dozen or so people at night, with a kitchen and a small room for the warden next door. At first the hut opened only on Sundays and holidays.

On 12 April 1932 the building burned down. The foundation stone of the new hut was laid on 24 July, and more than 200,000 kg of building materials had to be carried up – over 900 cartloads. The new hut measured 22.65 × 8.10 m, with a 15 × 12 m terrace, a dining room and veranda for around 100 people, eight dormitories, a generator house and a tiled stove in every room. It passed inspection on 6 November, and the grand opening was planned for 18 December 1932. During the war the hut was taken over by the German Beskidenverein; after 1945 it returned to hikers, run first by the Polish Tatra Society (PTT) and later by PTTK.

What to see

• Views of the Romanka and Lipowski Wierch ranges, Sucha Góra and the Żabniczanka and Soła valleys.
• Former fields – oats and potatoes were once grown here; the stones cleared from the fields still lie in heaps, usually under rowan trees. The meadows hold 40–60 species of flowering plants, and in spring cuckooflower blooms en masse.
• Sheep grazing – the pasture is grazed again under the "Owca Plus" programme.
• Jaskinia w Boraczej – the best-known cave in the Żywiec Beskids lies close to the pasture.

Trails and walking times

• black from Żabnica-Skałka – 1 h 10 min (shortest),
• green from Milówka – 2 h 15 min,
• blue from Węgierska Górka via Prusów – 3 h,
• from Rajcza – 3 h, or 4 h via Hala Redykalna,
• from Hala Lipowska – 1 h 30 min.

Practical information

According to the hut's price list (October 2026):

• 35 beds in rooms for 2, 3, 4 and 10 people, PLN 80 per person; bed linen PLN 20, camping in your own tent PLN 20 per person, dogs PLN 20 per night.
• Check-in from 15:00, check-out by 10:00; quiet hours 22:00–6:00.
• The buffet is open daily 8:00–19:00 (hot food until 17:30 Mon–Fri and until 18:00 at weekends). The specialities are pierogi and blueberry buns.
• In winter there are sleigh rides and snow tubing, and cross-country skis for hire.

Tripto tip

The black trail from Żabnica-Skałka is the shortest and easiest way up – a good first mountain hike with children. The pasture also works well as a base for ridge walks towards Lipowska, Rysianka, Romanka or Pilsko. If you plan to stay overnight at a weekend, book in advance via the hut's website.