Info on Szczyrk & Poland
Though it's hard to determine when the first settlers came to Zylica river valley, it is known, though, that Szczyrk has been an international settlement from its very start. Mixing Polish runaway convicts with some Balkan nomads, a drop of blue German and Austrian blood, a hint of Hungarian genes and some Czech and Slovak spirit, by the end of 15th century you will get a spark of today's united Europe!
The forefathers of today's hotel and resort owners of Szczyrk were simple farmers, living on sheepherding and hunting. As the village was growing, so was the economy: in 18th century Szczyrk became a major supplier of firewood for Silesian metallurgy, as well as wool exporter.
A taste of today's tourist resort prominence Szczyrk got to know after WW I, when first hospitals and lazarets were established for Austro-Hungarian soldiers coming back from the front.
By WW II the city earned almost 10 fully-fledged pensions and a mountain hostel on Mt. Skrzyczne, but it took ca. forty more years for Szczyrk to gain city rights, which happened on January 1st, 1973.
Today, Szczyrk is an all-year popular resort in southern Poland, complementing a chain of other mountain destinations, such as Zakopane or Krynica, though not yet trampled by tourists and still free of dough-hungry, tourist-feeding locals.
