Solo: Żywiec

What to do alone in Żywiec? Walk round the castle and its park, go down to the brewery cellars and spend hours by the lake, quietly and at your own pace.

Żywiec is friendly to a solo traveller, because it has a compact centre, museums for the rain and water and hills nearby. Over twenty sights are covered here, running from the castle complex to small chapels in outlying districts. For everything else in town see things to do in Żywiec; for lone travellers across the region there is what to do alone in Silesia.

What can you see in Żywiec under a roof when it rains?

For rainy weather Żywiec has three museums with different subjects: brewing, local history and the military. Each takes an hour or two and needs no company.

The Żywiec Brewery Museum is housed in lagering cellars hewn out of rock under the earliest section of the brewery. The exhibition was opened on 9 September 2006 for the brewery's 150th anniversary. It fills eighteen rooms, about 1,600 square metres in all. You can learn more about the family and the brewery from the article on the Habsburgs and the brewery in Żywiec. The Municipal Museum is in the Old Castle. Here you will find exhibits on the history of Żywiec, on the highlanders of the Żywiec region, on archaeology and nature, and on old church art. The collection has been gathered since 1925. The third is the Museum of Armed Effort of the Żywiec Region, set up in an air-raid shelter that the Germans built in 1944. It opened in May 2011, and it tells how people from the region took part in armed conflicts of the 20th century.

How to see the castle and park in Żywiec on your own?

The whole castle complex lies on Zamkowa Street, so half a day is enough. Start in the park and finish in the co-cathedral.

The New Castle is the brick palace of the Habsburgs, put up for Archduke Albrecht between 1871 and 1885 from plans by Karol Pietschka. Building work continued until 1911. In the park beside it stands the Chinese House, an octagonal two-storey park pavilion that the Wielopolski family funded in the later 18th century. On the same Zamkowa Street, at number 6, is the Co-Cathedral of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. This Gothic church from the 15th century has a tower with Renaissance elements and a Baroque interior. Since 1992 it has served as a second cathedral for the Bielsko-Żywiec see.

On the Market Square, at number 2, stands the town hall, four storeys of brick, descended from the house of the Kantorowski family. It still houses the City Office, so you see it from outside. In the centre, at Paderewskiego 10, walk round Klementynka Villa, a former manor of the early 18th century that was turned into a villa in 1887. A park surrounds it, and a white poplar 40 metres tall grows there.

Where to go in Żywiec for a hill and for the water?

Up Grojec Hill to the castle ruins, and to Lake Żywiec for the water. Both are places where it is easy to be alone with your thoughts and the view.

The ruins on Grojec Hill, the castle, are what remains of a medieval stronghold on a hilltop 612 metres high, between the Soła and the Koszarawa. The castle was destroyed in 1477. It is listed as a ruin, so you look at it from outside and with care. Lake Żywiec, also called the Tresna Reservoir, holds back the waters of the Soła. It was impounded in 1966 and reaches 6.6 kilometres in length and 26.8 metres in depth. A hydroelectric plant stands here, and Stary Żywiec and neighbouring villages were flooded, as the article on lakes Żywiec and Międzybrodzie describes. Walking round the water is free and the views reach the mountains. Among Beskid ideas you may also read about mountain huts in the Żywiec Beskids.

Which churches in Żywiec are worth seeing?

Żywiec has churches from the Gothic to the 1980s, scattered across the districts. A few are worth grouping by era.

Gothic and Baroque

The Church of the Holy Cross in Ruda, at Świętokrzyska 1A, is a Gothic church from around 1380, with a domed apse and a small bell turret under a shingle roof. Locals call it the Church of Three Crosses, because figures of the crucified stand on the outer wall of the apse. The Church of the Transfiguration at Komonieckiego 23, in a cemetery, was built in 1850-1856 after a wooden chapel of 1701 that Andrzej Komoniecki founded. St Mark's Church at Sienkiewicza 76B dates from 1885 and was built on the site of a wooden votive church after a plague, and its cemetery was laid out in 1784.

The 20th century

In Zabłocie, on Browarna Street, stands the brick, Romanesque-style Church of St Florian, built with breaks from 1935 to 1954 on a cross plan. Opposite is the Chapel of St Florian from the early 19th century, with a painting of the saint who protects against fires. The three-nave Church of Christ the King in Sporysz received its consecration in 1962 from Bishop Karol Wojtyła, and its mosaics follow designs by Wiktor Zin. The Church of St Maximilian Kolbe in Oczków on Krakowska Street, from 1982-1986, has an openwork tower and a structure resting on concrete wells. The foundation stone of the Church of Divine Mercy in Moszczanica was blessed by John Paul II, and building started in 1981.

Chapels in the districts

There are several small chapels. The Chapel of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Kocurów-Koleby, of 1933, replaced a wooden belfry, and in the same district stands the church of 1996. In Rędzina is the Chapel of Our Lady of the Rosary, from the late 1960s, in which a Baroque altar of 1708 stands. In Sporysz you will find the Holy Cross chapel of 1936-1938. Nothing is left of St Vitus's Chapel in Stary Żywiec except a moved spring, because the building vanished in 1964 during work on the reservoir.

How to plan a day in Żywiec by district?

The simplest way is to take one part of town at a time. The centre means the castle, park, co-cathedral, town hall and Klementynka Villa. In Zabłocie the church and chapel of St Florian stand side by side on Browarna Street. Sporysz has the Church of Christ the King and a Holy Cross chapel, and Kocurów-Koleby has the chapel and church of Our Lady of Perpetual Help. Oczków and Moszczanica have newer churches from the 1980s, for those who want to compare eras. Leave the trip to Grojec Hill or the lake for a separate day.

Frequently asked questions

Is Żywiec good for a trip alone?

Yes. The centre is compact, the castle, park and co-cathedral lie side by side, and the museums and the lake give you enough to do for a whole day.

What to do in Żywiec in the rain?

You can choose between the exhibition in the brewery's rock cellars, the municipal collections in the castle and the military museum in a former shelter.

Where can you see Żywiec from above?

From Grojec Hill, where the ruins of a medieval castle stand. The hill is 612 metres high and lies between the Soła and the Koszarawa.

How big is Lake Żywiec?

The reservoir stretches for as much as 6.6 kilometres and drops to 26.8 metres at its deepest. Dam builders created it in 1966 on the Soła.