Every design for Bielawa

On Kłobucznik, the bare hill locals call Łysa Góra, hang-gliders take off above a panorama of the whole of Bielawa, with the Owl Mountains lined up behind it. Below, the town stretches along the Bielawica stream for kilometres, from the lower foothills up towards the forest.

Bielawa stirs a particular kind of memory, of making and of arriving. Christian Dierig founded his weaving company here, the Weavers' Uprising broke out in the town and was crushed by the Prussians, and after the war refugees from the Greek Civil War settled in Bielawa and made it their own. The Wzgórze Pojednania and the Ławeczka Eleni sit alongside older places such as the Dwór obronny w Bielawie, a late-Renaissance manor first built for defence. Four hiking trails, cycling routes and ski lifts make the hills part of everyday life.

In the centre stands the Neo-Gothic Church of the Assumption, whose tower is among the tallest in Poland. Seen from Panek, it rises out of the long valley like a needle, and that is the picture people from Bielawa carry with them.