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NIEDZICA lies just across the gorge from Czorsztyn, but it's a roundabout trip by road, which involves heading back to Debno, or southeast towards Sromowce. By public transport, Niedzica is served by bus from Nowy Targ. The village occupies a strategic position at a major confluence of the Dunajec with a large tributary plunging down from Slovakia. Control of this valley and the border territory explains the presence of the castle , perched above the river. Originally raised in the fourteenth century as a stronghold on the Hungarian border, it was reconstructed in its current Renaissance style in the early 1600s, and today lies under threat from the hydroelectric scheme, which some experts believe will erode its rock foundations. It today houses the castle museum (Tues-Sun 9am-5pm; 4zl), with displays on the stronghold's history and a strong collection of local folk crafts. A Tintin-like folk tale associates the castle with the Incas. The wife of the last descendant of the Inca rulers allegedly lived here in the late eighteenth century, and left a hidden document detailing the legendary Inca treasure buried in Lake Titicaca in Peru - a document supposedly discovered in 1946. If you want a place to stay , there's the Hotel Pieniny , ul. Kanada 38 (tel 018/262 9383, pieniny@zzw-niedzica.com.pl ; en-suites 90-120zl (GBP16-22/US$22.50-30), rooms with shared facilities 60-90zl/GBP11-16/US$15-22.50), or the Pensjonat Chata Spiska , Pod Sosnami (tel 018/262 9403, niedzica@ns.onet.pl ; 160-220zl/GBP29-39/US$40-55), a cosy place with folksy wooden interiors. To the west of Niedzica, a little-frequented backroad winds its way towards Nowy Targ and Zakopane through the heart of the Spisz. Most villages here were effectively cut off from the outside world well into the nineteenth century, and serfdom was only abolished here in 1931. It still feels like another world, particularly in villages like TRYBSZ and LAPSZE which have Slovak populations. If you get the chance, visit on a Sunday morning, when you may catch the music of the excellent local choirs. The churches in both villages are equally enjoyable - the one in Trybsz is a wooden construction whose interior is lined with a fine sequence of mid-seventeenth-century frescoes illustrating biblical scenes and the lives of the saints in colourful, naive relief.
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