Old Inn in Jeleśnia

On the market square of Jeleśnia, in the heart of the Żywiec region, stands a wooden inn where people have been eating and drinking for generations – and still do. The Stara Karczma (Old Inn) is a vanishing type of Polish village inn and one of only two original buildings of its kind in the Podbeskidzie area. According to local tales, Beskid highwaymen used to drop in, including the locally famous Jurek Fiedor, known as Proćpak.

How old is the inn?

Sources disagree. The building is most often dated to the second half of the 18th century, but broader datings to the 16th, 17th or 18th century also appear. Local tradition says it was built by Wallachian shepherds and originally served as a forester's lodge. The date 1774 is visible on the ceiling of the main room – according to tradition the beams were brought from Kraków's Cloth Hall at the request of a Kraków curator, although some accounts treat this as a legend. In the 19th century the inn was thoroughly renovated and the front porch was added.

A tavern on the road to Orava

Village inns were usually built in the centre of the village, close to the church and the main road. In Jeleśnia the inn stands north-west of the church, by the market place, on the old trade route linking Żywiec with Orava – a region on the far side of the Żywiec Beskids that once belonged to Upper Hungary. Inns served as meeting places, coaching stops and lodgings; at one time 70–80% of Beskid villages had one. Only a few survive in the Żywiec region – besides Jeleśnia's, the famous "Rzym" (Rome) inn in Sucha Beskidzka.

The first owner was probably Archduke Charles Louis of Habsburg, who bought the Żywiec estates in 1833. Later the inn belonged to the Witek family of Jeleśnia, and in 1954 it was taken over by the "Samopomoc Chłopska" rural cooperative. During the Second World War an artillery shell damaged the building; in the 1950s the walls and foundations were strengthened, extensions removed and the roof covering replaced.

What to look for

• the Polish mansard roof covered with shingles over an L-shaped building,
• log walls of unwhitewashed timbers, sealed with straw,
• an open porch on two posts in front of the east entrance, and double plank doors set in frames with chamfered corners,
• the entrance hall with cobbled floor and a groin vault on transverse ribs, and stone-slab flooring in the former carriage house,
• beamed ceilings and the date 1774 on the ceiling of the main room,
• the rear carriage gate in the west wall – a reminder of the building's past as a coaching inn.

Tripto tip

The Old Inn is a restaurant serving regional food, not a museum – the best way to see the interior is over a meal, with respect for other guests and staff. Opening hours quoted in different places vary, so check them before you go. The inn is on the Wooden Architecture Route of the Silesian Voivodeship; after your meal, walk across the square to the nearby Church of St Adalbert.