CZANTORIA

I remember Czantoria (49°40'59.3"N 18°49'09.4"E / 49.683139, 18.819278) very well, mainly because of its chairlift. I rode it twice — probably around 1972–1973 and again sometime between 1975 and 1977 — and I still have souvenir photographs from both rides.

Year 1972 or 1973, riding the chairlift to the top of Czantoria withy my mother.  My aunt is visible in the next chair.

Curiously enough, in both photographs I am sitting on the very same chair! In the background one can see a chair travelling in the opposite direction marked with the number “95,” which allowed me, many years later, to notice this amusing coincidence.

Year 1975, 76 or 77, again riding on the same chairlift. My mother is seen in the next chair. I am sitting on the very same chair I sat several years ago-what a coincidence!

During our first stay we lived in the town of Wisła — not to be confused with the river of the same name. Wisła is located in the Beskid Mountains in southern Poland and has long been a popular holiday destination. At that time I often swam in the Vistula River (Wisła in Polish), the longest river in Poland, and even crossed it from one bank to the other.

Today this reminds me of my later (in 2024) “achievement” of swimming across the Mississippi — the longest river system in the United States — in Minnesota, something I already “boasted about” in my travel BLOG). So it appears that I have “completed,” in this unusual way, two famous rivers on two different continents! I must check how many more rivers I have to cross from shore to shore to be in the Guinness Book of World's Records...

During our second visit we spent our holidays in Ustroń-Zawodzie. If I remember correctly, we stayed in the so-called “Pyramids” — a striking and very modern sanatorium and holiday complex for its time, whose pyramid-like architecture remains one of the symbols of Ustroń to this day.

The Communist-era authorities in Poland invested heavily in such health resorts and sanatoria, especially in mountain and spa regions, where workers and families could spend subsidized vacations or undergo medical treatment.

During this stay, however, something unpleasant and rather dramatic also happened. My grandmother was involved in an accident which we witnessed — at the corner of Daszyńskiego and Grażyńskiego streets she was struck by a moped ridden by a young boy, while his father was travelling beside him on another motorbike.

As far as I remember, the accident was her fault, and I sincerely hope that the boy did not carry any feelings of guilt afterward. My grandmother spent several long weeks in hospital, but despite her age she eventually recovered and came through this difficult experience remarkably well.

Only recently did I discover another interesting historical connection. About 200 metres from the site of this accident, at Zielona Street 2 (49°43'15.1"N 18°48'54.6"E / 49.720861, 18.815167),  stood the villa of Edward Gierek, who at the time was the First Secretary of the Polish United Workers’ Party (PZPR) — effectively the leader of Communist Poland during the 1970s. Directly across the street was the villa of Jerzy Ziętek, a legendary Silesian political and social activist who played an important role in the postwar development of the region.

It is interesting how, years later, places tied to our personal memories often reveal unexpected historical connections hidden just beneath the surface.

Blogi są również dostępne w języku polskim/blogs are also available in the Polish language

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