The Artist’s House is a place of creative work with over 110 years of history. The facility was put into use in 1909. as the Forest School (Waldschule). In 1908, the neighboring Waldesruh building with the adjacent lands, forest and pond (almost 11ha) was bought by Count Franz von Ballestrem from Pławniowice (president of the Reichstag in 1898-1906). The Forest School was built by the Ballestrem Foundation and was intended for for the children of his employees and miners working for the Ballestrem family. Count Franz von Ballestrem attached great importance to social and health issues. There was also an inhalatorium built nearby, which helped people suffering from asthma, tuberculosis and anaemia. Until the 1920s, the Ballestrem Foundation organized the so-called “Green school”, which the children of Silesian employees aged between 12 and 14 used to visit from May to October for two weeks in groups of 40. In the 1920s, the centre became available to nuns who ran the Caritasheim St. Theresia orphanage. After the Second World War, the building was taken over by the the Worker’s Holiday Fund (Fundusz Wczasów Pracowniczych) in which it ran a holiday resort under the name “the Miner” (“Górnik”) and then “Calmness” (“Zacisze”). Since the 1980s, the building has been empty and decaying. In 2014, the Benevolens Foundation was given the building for use in order to carry out its statutory activities, provided that it is rebuilt and an open space is created for wider social groups.
