30/07/2026
We will be at the Festival, for sure 💕🎶🎶🎶
📅 On 28 July 1826, the day after completing his final year at the Warsaw Lyceum, 16-year-old Fryderyk Chopin set off on his long-awaited holiday to Duszniki-Zdrój. He was accompanied on the journey by his mother, later joined by Chopin’s youngest sister, Emilia, and Countess Ludwika Skarbkowa. The trip to the spa was most likely an attempt to save 14-year-old Emilia, who was suffering from tuberculosis and whose illness had entered a critical phase.
Around 2–3 August, the travellers arrived in Duszniki. There, they stayed at a guesthouse called ‘Bürgel’s House’ (today at 6 Zielona Street), which was modern and comfortable by the standards of the time, offering accommodation and meals.
⛰️ The treatment lasted until 11 September. The young composer drank ‘whey and local water’ and went for long walks, admiring the mountain scenery. He walked in the mountains surrounding the town, lamenting that he was not allowed to hike in the Sudetes due to his frail health: ‘enchanted by the view of the local valleys, I reluctantly make my way down, sometimes on all fours, but I have not yet been where everyone else goes, for I have been forbidden to do so,’ he wrote to Wilhelm Kolberg in Warsaw. The composer visited the Hermit’s House on Rozalia Hill; he may also have been to the paper mill situated on the outskirts of the town, which his sister Ludwika described in her book ‘Józio’s Journey to the Silesian Spas, Described by Himself’, inspired by her 1826 holiday.
📯 Daily trips to the spring also provided an opportunity to listen to ‘poor brass band music’, performed by an ensemble consisting of ‘a dozen or so caricatures of various styles’. The 16-year-old musician also complained about the lack of a decent instrument at the spa. This inconvenience became a minor issue when he was asked to play a charity concert for two young children of one of the spa guests, who had died suddenly whilst undergoing treatment. Chopin probably gave two concerts for the orphaned siblings at the Reiner Kursaal – a small manor house in the centre of the Spa Park, now known as the Fryderyk Chopin Manor in commemoration of this event.
🎹 Since 1946, the International Chopin Festival has commemorated Fryderyk Chopin’s stay and concerts in Duszniki-Zdrój; the festival features outstanding interpreters of the Polish composer’s music, including winners of the Chopin Competition. This year’s 81st edition of the Festival will take place from 7 to 15 August. It is well worth visiting Duszniki, especially during this artistic celebration, to soak up the atmosphere of Poland’s oldest music festival!
🖼 : The Fryderyk Chopin monument in Duszniki-Zdrój, by Jan Kucz. Photo by Jacek Halicki.
