We invite you to our creative asylum, where positive energy pulsates and ideas pop into your head. Put your phones down and grab brushes or guitars in your hands. Sit in our garden, under a walnut, with a pre-war typewriter. Find peace and enjoy the time spent together. Artists, art enthusiasts and laymen come to us, because the creative spark lies dormant in each of us. We believe that our space will free her in you. We open our ancient house to you, we invite you to the kitchen with a tiled stove for vegetarian breakfasts, we encourage you to play music, create poetry and play roles. Time passes slowly here, feasts together last for hours and there is always a good time to get to know each other better.
We came straight from Warsaw's Stare Bielany to the Bóbr river valley. Here, on the border of the Izerskie and Kaczawskie Foothills, between Bolesławiec and Lwówek Śląski, lies Włodzice Wielkie. Almost two decades ago, a blacksmith built a forge and his home here. Now we and our three cats live in it. At Malinowa Kuźnia we celebrate various arts, but most of all the art of living. We slowly turn from townspeople to settlers. We learn how to cultivate soil, flowers and plants, we learn the secrets of herbalism. We bake bread, brew ginger beer, seal preserves in jars and syrups in bottles. We explore the area, get to know its history and inhabitants. And we are still discovering the secrets of our house with a half-timbered structure and sandstone facade. Although there is still a lot of work ahead of us, we want to share with you the place where we feel the best in the world.
Raspberry Kuźnia has almost 200 years of history behind it. It often changed its owners, the first of them was a blacksmith. The cottage is approximately 300 square meters including the attic. Step by step, we discover its secrets: structures made of thick wooden beams and building materials: brick and stone. With hammers and chisels in hand, we slowly reveal the sandstone façade. We let the house breathe after years. Fortunately, the previous owners have preserved valuable memorabilia of the past: a board with the date 1831 on the lintel at the entrance, a 19th-century tiled floor in the corridor, brick in the kitchen and a tiled stove.
Upstairs there are 3 rooms and a small kitchenette with a dining area. Each of the rooms refers to one of the plays. We have a painting, music and literary room.
- A painting room, because there was a painting studio here before and we decided not to change it. You will recognize him by the colorful painting on one of the walls and the easel. If you are tempted, you will get brushes and paints - you will be able to create a work commemorating your stay.
- The music room has a stave on the wall with the sheet music of one of our songs - "Love is...". Acoustic guitar is provided.
- The literary room is the smallest of our rooms, but it hides a real treasure. A pre-war typewriter by "Triumph", which we bought from Janusz from Legnica. It used to belong to his mother, who wrote a family chronicle on it. We hope that it will be used to write the chronicle of our house.
All rooms have a bathroom with a shower, with a set of eco cosmetics and a hair dryer. There is an iron and ironing board in the wardrobe. On the ground floor there is our room and the heart of the house - a kitchen combined with a dining room. This is where we meet for breakfast together.
In front of the house there is a large garden with a walnut tree in the center. We have plenty of space, the plot is 1500 meters. The garden is a bit wild, mysterious, with a gazebo, a wooden swing in green and a romantic corner. In the spring magnolia blooms, in the summer there are blackberry, gooseberry and currant bushes, and in the fall we have our own apples. Behind our house there is a neighbor's barn, next to two plots of land with vacant buildings and an escarpment behind which the Bóbr River flows. And a bit further rapeseed fields, meadows, forest and the magical Żeliszów stream - home to the local Beavers.
Breakfast is the most important meal of the day for us. We open the door of our private dining room with a tiled stove, which has probably been here forever, and we share what we have the best: real flavors, a different hot dish and stories every day. The breakfasts we serve are vegetarian, varied and a bit experimental, because we both like to tinker with something in the kitchen. Looking at the pace at which food is disappearing from our guests' plates, it seems that we are doing well. Fresh vegetables and seasonal fruit (some from our garden), local products (cheeses, preserves, baked goods) and our culinary specialties appear on the table: smoked tofu paste with oscypek flavor, potato tortilla with spinach, lemon tart with Italian origin, pate with walnuts from Jadłonomia's recipe, veggie barley tartare, focaccia with potatoes and rosemary, orange cookies with sugar, chocolate mousse. These are just examples. In addition, we make bread ourselves - corn or wheat bread and hot oatmeal rolls. We offer elderberry flower juice, as well as carbonated drinks prepared with yeast, e.g. strawberries. There will also be ginger beer.
Delightful, unhurried feasting lasts up to two hours.
On the first floor you will find a small but reasonably equipped kitchenette with a refrigerator and a two-burner stove. There is also a coffee maker. You can also eat here - there is a table and chairs. In the garden you will find a gazebo, table and a place for a bonfire. We have fruit bushes and trees as well as wild beds with vegetables. However, we take the first steps in cultivation and so far we are happy with each of our own specimens.
We've checked local nursing homes on our own palate, and we've got a whole list of recommendations for you. And if you want to discover them on your own, we'll just add that the area offers a lot of gastronomic treasures.
We dreamed of an asylum with an artistic flair. We believe that everyone has a creative element and here, in our house and garden, we give space to release it (if you wish). Our house was created for meetings and various forms of spending time together. We invite our guests to movie nights with the classics of cinema, music-making together (we have several instruments on site), poetry evenings and board games. If you feel like performing theater improvisation, karaoke or any other form of cultural activity, you will hear a resounding yes from us! At home, there is a library and a large collection of board games waiting for you, which Dariusz is a fan of and which he will always be happy to play with you.
Our secret garden, in turn, is simply created for leisurely indulgence. Drinking morning coffee, eating dinner, lying on the grass with a book, swinging, evening contemplation of the stars by the fire.
Raspberry Kuźnia is surrounded by fields and meadows. Our neighbors are hares, roe deer, foxes and pheasants that live in the surrounding forests. And beavers that build dams on the nearby Potok Żeliszów. You can wander around the hills, forest paths and riverbanks for hours. We will gladly take you for a walk together, collect gifts from fields and meadows, and show you the most beautiful corners of Włodzice Wielkie. The charming, wild Bóbr river will pleasantly cool you down on hot days, and in the cold it will make its current available for swimming.
If you want to conquer the area, both the far and near have a lot to offer. We are located right next to the green hiking trail that leads from Bolesławiec to Lwówek Śląski and right next to the Euroregional Bicycle Trail ER-6. There is an equestrian farm on the other side of the village. And four kilometers from us, there are two Rakowickie lakes formed as a result of the flooding of gravel excavations. A beach with a Jamaican bar and a wakeboard lift awaits you over one, and a canoe and water bike rental over the other.
What is worth doing in the area?
- Go kayaking or rafting on the Bóbr River (starting in Nielestno).
- Visit the surrounding towns: Lwówek Śląski, Wleń and Gryfów Śląski. See castles, churches, palaces and pearls of architecture, of which there are plenty in Lower Silesia.
- Drop by for the Lwówek Agatowe Summer (in July), a celebration of earth treasure hunters taking place outdoors with a view of the Lwówek market square and the town hall. This international exchange of minerals and jewelery is accompanied by numerous attractions, including concerts.
- Go to the Brewing Museum in Lwówek Śląski and taste live unfiltered beer Bastyjka.
- See the Renaissance noble castle decorated with cloisters and the medieval knight's manor in Płakowice (Lwówek Śląski).
- Visit a ceramics factory and take part in workshops at the Living Museum in Bolesławiec, during which you can decorate a mug, jug or bowl.
- Visit the Kargul and Pawlak Museum in Lubomierz.
- Go to Pławna, where the artist and painter Dariusz Miliński created a land straight from a fairy tale. The Castle of Silesian Legends, Noah's Ark and the Knights' Castle are waiting for you here.
- Visit Lake Pilchowickie with a water dam and see the hanging railway bridge from 1906.
- For mountain lovers: Szklarska Poręba is an hour away from us, where the trail to Szrenica awaits you.
- Visit Görlitz-Zgorzelec (about 50 km) - an urban organism divided by the river with about 6,000 monuments, museums, galleries, a small zoo and beautiful recreational areas on the Nysa Łużycka River.
What’s there for children?
We invite adults and children from 10 years of age (pay attention to the steep stairs leading to the first floor).
We want our home to be an oasis of peace and quiet. For older children, there are board games and books, a garden where you can get lost and, above all, experiencing the nature and freedom of life in the countryside. The area is full of attractions, you can walk, cycle, canoe and explore.
What’s there for employees?
In each of our climatic rooms there will be a place to work. It is a table, desk or secretary (ask for details when booking). The speed of our internet could make even NASA employees smile. There is no other place like this in Slowhop.
