The Artist's Path: 7 Creative Retreats in Poland

Seven streets, a chill in the air, and that Grunwald street that neither scares nor charms. There’s an atmosphere here that could turn a firefighter into an arsonist, the guy from the local movie house into a famous director, and the dark forest into an equal protagonist of any story. Writers flock to this shadowed valley at the foot of the Suchy Mountains—Olga Tokarczuk with Empuzjon, Joanna Bator with Bitter in the Mouth—along with filmmakers (the Hommage à Kieślowski Festival) and the local art scene. One guest, Ewa, came for a week and stayed a month. She left with her own spot, a modest two-room apartment called Alfreda with surprisingly tall ceilings. She and an architect friend restored it, and even though she now lives 750 miles away, she still sends it cultural company.

• comfortable desk in the bedroom and a large kitchen table
• creative events at the Cultural Lab
• great thinking over a meringue at Café Smaki
• from 260 PLN/night for 2 people

“Moisture settled like a thin glaze on leaves that had long since yellowed and reddened but still clung to life. Not yet ready to part with the trees. In the heavy, damp air, a leaf fell theatrically and astonishingly loud. Pa-tup, pa-tup, sticking to its companions as they began to cover sidewalks and cobblestones with a soft upholstery.” Empuzjon, Olga Tokarczuk

Walloon miners arrived in the Karkonosze Mountains in the Middle Ages, sketching maps of safe paths to mineral deposits by the sound of their pickaxes. Herbalists were here too, knowing which plants to use in flying ointments. Add dense fog and wind that knocks you off your feet, and inspiration comes easy. At 700 m above sea level with mountain views, a solitary retreat beckons those who prefer to create in silence. With fresh air, lesser-known trails, and plenty of room to contemplate, two cottages in Borowice feel like a mountain refuge—minus the crowds.

• large table with a mountain view
• inspiration from Karkonosze legends
• summer music festival “Guitar and Pen”
• from 600 PLN/night for 2 people

“Time, like a spinner, unwound autumn from her bobbin and once more wound her onto the spindle. High above the meadows on the Karkonosze ridge, gusts beat like hollow horn blasts. And below, the winds swept the village’s barn floors clean, scattering straw across the countryside. (…) In the Jelenia Góra Valley, an Indian summer arrived.” The Spirit of the Mountains, Carl Hauptmann

Who hasn’t been hosted by Białowieża: kings, tsars, dukes, nobility, village folk, vagabonds, lumberjacks, and everyone else who didn’t fit a category. Cherished and priceless, the Białowieża Forest appears in Johann Heinrich Müntz’s engravings and Tamara Tarasiewicz’s paintings. It’s forever linked to Simona Kossak, whose books unveil its wonders. Here, in the historic Directorate Park in Białowieża, Alicja and Paweł have created a sanctuary of silence in what once housed tsarist officials. Today it’s a tasteful residence with a path leading to Simona’s home just around the corner.

• desk in the bedroom and a round table by the fireplace
• surrounded by the wild, inspiring Białowieża Forest
• self-catering or local restaurants
• from 380 PLN/night for 2 people

“A human-cultivated forest is like a cow to a bison, a village mongrel to a wolf, the Noteć, Kampinoska, and Niepołomicka Forests to the Białowieża. Like brass to gold.” Saga of the Białowieża Forest, Simona Kossak

They say this is the oldest part of the Sudeten Mountains. They also say the fortress in Srebrna Góra was never taken and half the underground corridors of the Riese complex remain undiscovered. Time here doesn’t flow in a straight line but overlaps past and present. That tension inspired Katarzyna Zyskowska’s novel At Night the Deer Cry, chronicling generations of women tied to this rugged land. Yet there are so many more stories to tell. We invite creative souls to No Drama House, a 19th-century villa restored by film enthusiasts. You can rent the entire house on weekends or individual rooms during the week.

• desks in each room and a workshop space for sharing ideas
• historic witnesses: Srebrna Góra fortress, mines, Riese complex
• the town of Nowa Ruda with its best storyteller at Biała Lokomotywa Café
• from 390 PLN/night for 2 people

“I find this place and its history fascinating—especially since we’re part of it. Each of us is like a cog in the great gears of time, driving the wheel of events. Everything has a cause and effect, whether we like it or not. What the Germans did here half a century ago still affects us. That’s why I’m so intrigued by when these lands belonged to the Reich and what happened to the people after the war ended.” Nocami krzyczą sarny, Katarzyna Zyskowska

At Monika and Maciej’s place, there’s a room with a desk overlooking the garden. Inside the desk drawer, guests leave notes for each other—one guest for the next. So if you need a writing plan, here’s one: head to Warmia, book a double room with a desk, write all day, and only come down for meals. And if the muse skips town, hop on a bike and ride around Kawkowo, where art sprawls across fields, perches on fences, and smells of Warmian lavender.

• desk with a garden view
• breakfast and dinner for those who want it
• nearby: Węgajty Forest Theatre, Kawkowo Gallery, and pottery workshops
• from 350 PLN/night for 2 people

“I dream of a homestead at the end of the world, and I know where that end is—Warmia, near Pieniężno, Orneta, Górowo Iławeckie. Rolling hills with hidden lakes among forests and fields. (…) I fell in love with it. A land emptied out, depopulated, deforested. A true Terra Incognita.” Under the Stork House, Wojciech Wolański

Monika Sznajderman put it well: “Beskid Niski isn’t the Tatras. No nineteenth-century writer discovered the beauty of the pristine Carpathian Forest here, no painter captured the charm of its gentle, wooded hills, and no nineteenth-century poet strolled in contemplation.” Times have changed. Today the PLEMIĘ troupe stages performances in local churches, Mania Strzelecka (“Beskid, Seriously”) skis for inspiration, and Andrzej Stasiuk (Galician Tales) sips his morning coffee in Wołowiec. In the Low Beskids, the ends of the earth are plentiful, and one awaits you in Nowica—a village of artists, shifting horizons, and Lemko memories. Here, Mikołaj and Jessi renovated an old farm into two spacious guest apartments, complete with a small menagerie and the scent of homemade bread.

• large wooden tables in each apartment
• optional breakfast and dinner
• the unforgettable Lemko region
• from 250 PLN/night for 2 people

“Yes, in this part of the world nature is beautiful and lush, but it’s an illusion of untouched wilderness, a landscape that only seems innocent.” Empty Forest, Monika Sznajderman

Masuria, a discovery of our generation, as songwriter Agnieszka Osiecka said. For decades, summer cottages on Lake Nidzkie echoed with filmmakers, actors, writers, and artists, with porches hosting Daniel Olbrychski, Wojciech Młynarski, and Osiecka herself. If you believe in a landscape’s memory, take trips to Śniardwy (as in Roman Polanski’s Knife in the Water), the Pranie forester’s lodge (Konstanty Ildefons Gałczyński’s retreat), or Zgon (home of writer Igor Newerly). Less than 12 miles from Nidzkie, between places called “don’t know” and “never heard,” stands a red cabin. Around it: nothing or everything—depending on your view. Six hectares all to yourself, with a bath in the old barn and silence that whistles in your ears. Ideal for the artist-individualist.

• desk with character in the bedroom and a living-room table
• one human neighbor, but plenty of cows and deer
• a place straight out of a novel
• from 560 PLN/night for 2 people

“There’s news! A bus stop in Krzyże. And a bus to Karwica, and to Pisz, one to Ruciane. So you won’t have to trudge with your pack, gasping from the station. I’ll never forget how the forest smelled at Karwica Mazurska station when I was 20!” Letter from Agnieszka Osiecka to Adam Michnik, July 1985