Relaks Resort
For many years, the „Relaks” Holiday and Tourist Resort was one of the most recognisable summer leisure destinations in Boguszyce. Located beside a large body of water, next to Boguszyce Forest and not far from Oleśnica, it attracted local residents looking for simple summer pleasures: water, sunshine, holiday cabins, children’s camps and the lively atmosphere of a bathing resort.
Today, the former „Relaks” is above all a memory. It remains part of local memory — a place some associate with the swimming pool, others with holiday cabins, and still others with an abandoned site that gradually lost its former character.
beginning of the resort’s peak popularity
end of the former bathing-resort format
sale of the site and demolition of the old cabins
Boguszyce summer destination
„Relaks” operated as a leisure destination centred on water and the summer season. Descriptions of the resort mention swimming pools, a paddling pool for young children, water slides and accommodation facilities. It was the kind of place that did not need to be luxurious to remain in people’s memories — hot days were enough, towels on the grass, a queue for ice cream and voices carrying from the water.
Between forest and water
Its location was one of the resort’s greatest advantages. The proximity of a large body of water, Boguszyce Forest and natural areas meant that „Relaks” was more than just a swimming pool. It formed part of a broader landscape: the road from Oleśnica, summer journeys, paths through the forest and the water that attracted residents of the region for many years.
Traces of the former resort
- large swimming pool divided into zones by platforms
- smaller recreational pool
- children’s paddling pool
- water slides
- wooden holiday cabins
- accommodation for tourists and children’s camps
- leisure area by the water
- surroundings of Boguszyce Forest
- seasonal, summer character of the place
From summer bustle to silence
„Relaks” was one of those places remembered not for grand architecture, but for its atmosphere: sun-heated concrete, the smell of wet towels, wooden cabins, children’s camps, laughter and voices coming from the pool. At the height of its popularity, it was a summer meeting place for residents of Oleśnica, Wrocław and the surrounding towns and villages.
Over time, the old model of leisure began to fade. The infrastructure aged, maintaining the swimming pool became increasingly difficult, and the resort gradually lost its original function. What had once been a lively bathing resort began to empty and become overgrown.
Years of prosperity
„Relaks” is most strongly associated with the communist-era period and the 1990s, when it operated as a popular holiday resort for residents of Oleśnica, Wrocław and the surrounding area. The concrete pool basin, platforms dividing the bathing area into zones, the children’s paddling pool, „Brda”-type cabins, children’s camps and summer stays created the image of a simple place, but one full of life.
Decline and sale
After 2000, the resort increasingly lost its former function. In 2013, the site was sold to a private owner, and a year later demolition of the old, deteriorating holiday cabins began. This symbolically marked the end of the era of „Relaks” as a traditional holiday resort dating from the communist period.
What is lost does not always disappear
Hundreds of holidaymakers passed through the former „Relaks”: children at summer camps, families carrying towels under their arms, people returning from a swim, someone running for ice cream, someone looking for the key to a cabin. In places like this, something was always getting lost — a coin, a hair clip, a key ring, a postcard, a small object of no value to strangers, but important to the person who left it behind.
In the world of Boguszyczanie, it is therefore worth looking where no one looks anymore: under old benches, beside cracks in the concrete, along empty paths and where the cabins once stood. Because sometimes the most ordinary lost object turns out to be a clue that leads further.
Sources and materials
This page was prepared using information from publicly available historical materials and studies. The content was written and edited specifically for the Boguszyczanie project.