Naleczow

Naleczow sits in a deep ravine cut into loess in the Lublin upland, which gives it a sheltered microclimate, and it has been a spa since 1817, built around mineral waters used for cardiac treatment - it is the only Polish resort with that as its specialism. The spa park is the centre: about twenty hectares of lawn, pond and old trees with a nineteenth-century bath house, a pump room and a bandstand. Two writers' houses stand in it. Stefan Zeromski built a small wooden chalet here and worked in it; it is now a museum with his manuscripts. Boleslaw Prus, who came for his health for decades, is remembered in a museum in the palace. The town has a group of wooden villas in a distinctive local Swiss-Zakopane manner, and around it the loess landscape is cut by dry ravines - waw ozy - that make good walking, some of them running for kilometres between vertical earth walls.

History

Healing waters were discovered here in the 18th century and started the growth of a health resort for circulatory disorders, and the baroque-classicist Małachowski Palace was built in 1771-73. The novelist Bolesław Prus spent his holidays here for three decades, from 1882 until his death in 1912, and Stefan Żeromski, whose career Prus helped, was another frequent visitor; the water is now bottled and sold as Nałęczowianka (Wikipedia, Nałęczów).

The main sights

• A loess ravine spa - sheltered microclimate, cardiac waters since 1817.
• A twenty-hectare park - bath house, pump room and bandstand.
• Two writers' museums - Zeromski's wooden chalet and the Prus collection.
• Dry loess gorges - walking routes between vertical earth walls around the town.

When to go

May to September. A day.

Before you go

Treatments are for registered patients rather than walk-in visitors. Museums close on Mondays. The gorges become impassable mud after heavy rain. The town is quiet outside the season.

Nearby

Kazimierz Dolny is north-west; Pulawy park is north.

Key facts