About

Hej Pilsko, Hej Pilsko
Hej high Grass
Where the highland robbers from Orawa
passed by

The youth hostel at Hala Miziowa is a year-round facility, picturesquely situated on the slopes C in the Beskid Żywiecki. It is the highest situated shelter in the Polish Beskidy Mountains (1330 m above sea-level) and Pilsko - 1,557 m above the sea level is the second highest peak in the whole Beskidy Mountains, just after the Babia Góra (1725 m above the sea level).

The tourists who visit us from spring to autumn can enjoy beautiful areas where there are numerous hiking trails on both the Polish and Slovak sides.

In winter the Pilska slope turns into a paradise for snow sports. Here are the best conditions for skiing and snowboarding in the Beskidy Mountains . A wide network of ski lifts and trails of varying difficulty are the elements that attract many skiers.

In the area Pilska, there also operates the year-round Mountain Rescue (GOPR) station, which provides tourists with security and professional medical care.

The exceptional climate, scenic and tourist attractions of this place, home cooking and friendly family atmosphere, as well as the variety of attractions that we can offer our guests make the stay at Hala Miziowa an unforgettable experience.

 

The plans to build a youth hostel on the Hala Miziowa were probably born in 1906. Kazimierz Sosnowski - one of the greatest Polish promoters of hiking, and John Mizia - the owner of the pasture, where the building was supposed to be located participated in the talks . The idea was noble: to stay ahead in the settlement of the tourist region -Pilska from the German company Beskidenverein. However, the outbreak of World War I delayed the implementation of the plans by up to 15 years. They returned to it only in 1927, thanks to the Babiogórski Branch of the Polish Tatra Society. Amazingly, Beskidenverein, which was active in other areas of Żywiec, did not show the slightest interest of the Pilska slopes. As a result, the activists of the PTT could claim to be the pioneers of tourist development of this part of the Beskidy Mountains.

The construction of the youth hostel began in 1927. Due to the various perturbations and financial obstacles it lasted until the 1930s.

In the end, there stood a beautiful one-story, wooden building in the Zakopane style with a glass viewing veranda, considered then as the most beautiful in the Beskidy Mountains. The wood was received as a gift from the Archduke of Habsburg, who was the owner of a large part of Żywiec at that time. At the grand opening there came about 1,500 Poles and foreigners. In 1936, a telephone line was brought and the bathrooms with showers were launched, which was the major manifestation of modernity.

The first tenant of the shelter was Robert Sikora, then Helena Polak repalced him. From 1938 the object was managed by Albert Rudolf, who, after the German invasion quickly changed his citizenship and as a full citizen of the Third Reich still ran the youth hostel. Beskidenverein became its owner. There stationed there also twenty German gendarmes as a permanent crew to fight the partisans. At the end of the war, the youth hostel was empty and it became an easy target for looters, who robbed it of almost all the equipment.

In this state, the activists of the PTT took it over and in 1945 opened the buffet, and soon arranged a place to stay. The youth hostel functioned just over 7 years. On March 19th, 1953 it was completely destroyed by fire, probably stirred up by chance by a careless tourist. Fortunately, the preserved shelter's outbuildings were adapted to the temporary buffet and bedrooms for fifty people.

The 'temporary' youth hostel proved to be very durable, because it functioned for over 50 years.

It was only in 1994 when it was decided to build a new facility, planned on a grand scale to fulfill the needs of the tourism in Pilskie. At its opening it came, however, to wait until 2003. Then, the old "temporary" youth hostel was closed , partially pulled down, and in the other part, only buffet was built.

Sources:

R. Jakubowski, R. Szewczyk, Resorts in Poland, Warsaw 2013,

Bear A., S. Figiel, Beskidy, Vol. 1, Silesian and Zywiec, Bielsko-Biala in 1997.