Hunting Lodge in Bibiela

Beside a forest track in Bibiela, a village district of Miasteczko Śląskie, stands a hunting lodge built in 1890 by the Henckel von Donnersmarck family, owners of the surrounding forests. Almost a century later it gained a second life in a completely different world: in the 1970s the ruling Polish United Workers' Party (PZPR) took it over for its First Secretary, Edward Gierek. It makes a good excuse for a forest walk that combines easily with the flooded mine at Pasieki.

From the Donnersmarcks to Gierek

The Donnersmarcks, one of the richest industrial families in Upper Silesia, owned large estates here – a granary of 1795 in nearby Żyglinek comes from one of their farms. The lodge in Bibiela served them as a base for hunting. In the 1970s the party took over the building and laid out a swimming pool and a large garden around it. Today it is a low-key building in the forest rather than a museum – official sources give no information about visiting the interior.

Bibiela and Pasieki

Bibiela stretches along a single street, ul. Starowiejska. Its name probably comes from a miller: in 1683 the parish register of Żyglin recorded "Szymon Bibiela of Bibielina". The mill closed in 1729 and its buildings became a forester's lodge; the colony of ten farms gained its own local government in 1825. In the woods known as Pasieki two mines for iron, zinc and lead ores opened in 1889. In 1917 miners struck a strong inflow of water in one of the galleries and the mine flooded – the miners escaped, but the machinery was lost. Today colourful ponds, ruins and rust-red spoil heaps remain.

Tripto tip

View the lodge from the forest road and do not enter the grounds, as no official source says it is open to visitors. A quarter of an hour is enough for a stop, but it is worth planning a longer walk or bike ride: the municipality has marked cycle routes in the area with rest shelters – one opposite the forest car park on regional road 908, another at Mieczysko near Pasieki. Legend says the mine was flooded by Szarlej, an angry guardian spirit of the ores. Bibiela also has several protected veteran trees, including limes almost 200 years old and oaks estimated at 550 years.