Let us open the pages of history in 1908, in Głuchołazy, or rather in the pre-war spa town of Bad Ziegenhals. It was then that Count Franz von Ballestrem purchased almost 11 hectares of land with a forest and the "Waldesruh" (Leśne Zacisze) guesthouse situated by a pond from Heinrich Ertelt. In 1909, he built the Forest School (Waldschule) for the children of his employees, in which, until the 1920s, "green schools" were organized for children of workers, miners and steel workers from Upper Silesia. Over the next decades, the Forest School served children, and after the Second World War as a holiday center, in 2014 it became the property of our Benevolens Foundation and gained another incarnation. It's artistic.
We want the Artist's House to serve artists and people of art for leisure and creative work. The corridors act as an art gallery, the rooms are filled with furniture from various eras and parts of Europe, the attic is a space for creative frenzy, and the park is our House of Culture. If we hit your sensitive chord, let it take you. For watercolor and glass painting workshops, Promenade concerts, vernissages, exhibitions, open-air painting and poetry meetings. Here you will get inspired to create, and perhaps you will immediately jump into a whirlwind of a creative trance. One does not need to look far for inspiration. It is enough to leave the House straight to the Spa Park, to the forest, to Zdrojnik, to the trails of the Opawskie Mountains, following the traces of the gold mine. Maybe you will create a work of life here, maybe not, but one thing is for sure, you will have a rest as befits a spa. Bene volens in Latin means to wish someone well - come and see that we wish you the best.
In the heart of the forested Spa Park, but off the beaten path, a few steps from the forest pond, which was dug on behalf of the first owner, Heinrich Ertelt, in a healing microclimate. More precisely, in the over 110-year-old former Forest School, now the Creative Work House, where inspiration comes unexpectedly.
The beautiful, historic building has undergone a major renovation, but we have tried to retain its atmosphere and unique charm. We furnished it with antique, fully functional period furniture, and each of the 8 rooms was given its own hallmark and character.
We currently have the following accommodation options:
- 4 double rooms with 2 single beds
- 1 double room with a double bed
- 1 single room with a large bed
- 2 apartments for up to 4 people
Each room is equipped with bed linen and towels.
The spacious dining room is a place for meetings and serving meals, and a functional, fully equipped kitchen is available for guests who want to cook on their own. We have installed a retractable screen and a projector in the fireplace room, which we use during presentations or lectures, but can also be used to watch movies together.
In the attic, we have set up a group studio, as befits an Artist's House, where workshops, sessions and training are held. Here you can try painting on glass, create your first painting on canvas or discover the world of watercolors. We also have a pottery firing kiln, so you can experience ceramic workshops. The surroundings of the House inspire you to create and take your time and relax, and the Spa Park inspires you to discover it step by step. At your disposal is a park space with paths, a larch gazebo belonging to our foundation and a meadow with a fireplace.
We offer you a fully equipped, new kitchen, which you can use by sharing the space with other household members. You can also order buffet breakfasts, which are served in the dining room from 8.00 to 10.00. On request, we serve dinner for groups of more than 10 people.
Creative heads who come to the Artist's House use their time here in several ways. It is a place for relaxation and creative work, where you can meet people who are similar to you - interesting and passionate. You can hide in the attic studio and create, you can go outdoors in search of inspiration and inspiration, you can relax and develop your passion for art: music, poetry, painting, etc.
At the Artist's House you can organize open-air painting and sculpture workshops, a poetry evening, an author's meeting, small promenade concerts, and handicraft workshops for children and adults. You can organize a concert and exhibition with us! We invite painters, illustrators and sculptors to the Artist's House to organize their vernissages here.
In search of muse, it is worth going out into nature. And it so happens that the Artist's House is surrounded by it on all sides. It is located in the Spa Park, in Głuchołazy near Górny Staw, on the slope of Góra Parkowa, in the Opawskie Mountains. At the time when the Artist's House was a model forest school, i.e. at the beginning of the 20th century, the Upper Pond (called "Swan" by the locals) was a unique tourist attraction of Bad Ziegenhals (Głuchołaz). In the summer there were gondola rides, and in the winter there was a slide. Now it is a charming place with an island in the middle, attracting spa guests and eagerly used for wedding photo sessions. A walk around the renovated Spa Park allows you to discover many beautiful nooks and crannies. Through marked paths you will reach recreation areas, an alpinarium built in the 1920s (modeled on the Aztec pyramids), wooden bridges and viewing terraces.
As befits a health resort, in the Park you can use water therapy bowls filled with cold water from the stream (you dip your hands in them to improve circulation) and paddling pools located on the spa stream, where you can safely soak your feet. Here you can also read the story of Dr. Priessnitz, known as the water doctor. In the park part adjacent to Staw Górny, in our area - in the immediate vicinity of the House, there is an interestingly arranged nature and educational path presenting the fauna and flora of the Opawskie Mountains. Above the pond, a 3-minute walk from the House, there is a brine graduation tower in the shape of a wooden observation tower (in a form similar to a truncated pyramid, 15 meters high, it is the only structure of this type in Poland).
We recommend a walk to the edge of the Park to Żegnalce Spring. At this spring, people going on a long journey to southern Europe, Moravia, Vienna, Italy were supposed to say goodbye, and it was here, outside the city walls, by the Biała River, that they said goodbye. Here you can drink cold and clean water straight from the spring or fill it in bottles.
Straight from the door of the Artist's House you can set off on numerous mountain routes:
- The blue trail leading around Góra Parkowa.
- The Golden Miners' Trail, marked in yellow, leading through former gold mines and through the peak of Przednia Kopa (495 m above sea level). Walking through the entire spa park you will reach a swing bridge (which really swings), along the Biała River to the Bialska School, which you can enter (it is 10 meters long), then you will reach the Żegnalce Spring for a sip of cold water and then to the Białka River Reserve , up to the Chapel of St. Anna. Later, along the scenic route to the Opawskie Mountains, you will reach our part of the Park, and you can rest in the shade of over a hundred-year-old beeches or at the brine graduation tower next to the Hospital on the other side of Staw Górny, in the vicinity of the Artist's House.
Several hiking trails also pass through Głuchołazy:
- city trail in Głuchołazy (length 6.5 km, time: 4 hours)
- Main Sudetes Trail named after Mieczysław Orłowicz (Red) starting in Prudnik, running through Biskupia Kopa, Głuchołazy, to Paszków and further through the entire Sudetes, up to Świeradów Zdrój.
- Way of Saint James also called Camino de Santiago. Jacob's Trail leading through the Głuchołazy Commune belongs to the Nysa Way of St. Jacob. Its beginning is Jacob's well in Głuchołazy, which is located between the 7th and 8th Stations of the Cross on Góra Parkowa, just a 15-minute walk from the Artist's House.
Głuchołazy and Góra Parkowa are one of the most attractive places for mountain biking and cross-country skiing enthusiasts in the Opole Voivodeship. Attractive terrain, beauty of nature and, most importantly, well-prepared forest and mountain Singletrack bicycle routes are appreciated by MTB enthusiasts. Within Góra Parkowa, there are currently 4 singletrack bicycle routes with various levels of difficulty - a total of almost 5 km in length.
For those who love winter fun, there are 3 cross-country skiing routes with varying degrees of difficulty and different lengths - a total of almost 14 km. In the massif of Góra Parkowa, which you can go straight from the Artist's House, there is a picturesque running route, the so-called "Forest loop around Średnia Kopa" named after Edward Ilnicki, the entire trail runs in a forested mountain area.
Additionally, there are bicycle routes running through Głuchołazy:
- Witches' Trail on the Czech-Polish border. Color of the marking on the Polish side: black. Total length: 233 km.
- International Cycle Route R9. Marking color: light green, symbol R9. Length within the commune: 22.1 km.
- R60 route. Marking color: blue. Length: 61.6 km.
In Głuchołazy you can also take part in the field game "Orienteering of the Duchy of Nysa". In 15 attractive tourist places in Głuchołazy, you can find characteristic information and promotional posts, equipped with rotating cubes with descriptions of the most interesting places with monuments and natural and historical attractions of Głuchołazy and the Opawskie Mountains. One of them is located in the immediate vicinity of the Park at the Artist's House.
Athletes in the Opawskie Mountains can count on releasing their energy reserves. For many years, the following events have been held in the area, including:
- Prudnik Hiking Marathon leading through the trails of the Opawskie Mountains, the Czech Jeseníky Mountains, and sometimes the Rychlebské Mountains. You can choose the route length from 12 km to 50 km.
- Zlatohorský Trekking is a hiking tour leading through the Czech part of the Opawskie Mountains. It has been organized for 44 years.
- Prudnik Pradziad Rally, a 60 km long walking rally organized for the 10th time, leading through the mountains, mainly uphill.
- Mountain biking competitions, including the Gold Hill MTB Marathon and Cykloopawy (first weekend of September).
Places that are also worth seeing are:
- Kopa Biskupia (890 m above sea level) - the highest peak in the Polish part of the Opawskie Mountains with an 18 m high stone tower from which a beautiful panorama can be heard,
- Rejvíz National Nature Reserve,
- Priessnitz Spa in Jesenik,
- Picturesque Karlova Studanka,
- Open-air museum Zlatorudne Mlyny,
- Ramzova, Cervonohorskie Sedlo, Miroslav, Filipovice, Kouty - these are just some of the attractive ski slopes located approximately 30 km from the Artist's House.
What’s there for children?
Children will be able to activate the right hemisphere of the brain responsible for creativity and artistic abilities. Depending on when you visit us, they will take part in creative workshops, in a field game, go to an exhibition or vernissage, listen to an open-air concert, make themselves at home in the studio, get to know the world of photography, watercolors, pastels or ceramics. It is worth taking a look at our calendar to check if something is planned at the moment.
The Spa Park is a treat not only for adults, but also for children. There are playgrounds, a concert shell where you can organize an a capella concert for parents, lots of walking paths, a pond and a spa with crystal clear water. The kids will be able to walk on pebbles through the sensory path, wander with a stork's step in a shallow stream and look at the waterfall located right next to the Upper Pond and the island entrance via the bridge. You can also go to the Sensory Park near the Głuchołaski Market Square or to the bathing beach by Białka - a recreational and sports complex with a play zone with slides, a water massage zone, a river and a cave with an artificial wave.
What’s there for employees?
With us you can organize development workshops - for body and mind, breathing workshops, forest bathing, dance, theater and vocal workshops, as well as a symposium and remote work with the team. The Internet may not be amazing, but the purpose of working here is to look for artistic inspiration and create your life's work.
We have a studio where a large table and conference chairs are perfect for a group that wants to express itself artistically or for team brainstorming sessions. Additionally, work in the dining room at three tables has already been tested on a larger group. We also have a fireplace room where you can finish the last few chapters of your book in silence at a coffee table.
In a separate room for individual work, there is a wooden desk surrounded by paintings.
